The China one was the only one I missed and they replayed it recently and I just watched the PVR. I liked him hitting himself with the kung fu metal thing.
Things I do not like in travel shows in general - watching privileged people eat things they perceive as gross which underfed locals have gone to a lot of trouble to prepare for them. I see these scenes all the time on a lot of travel shows, and it always pisses me off. I know it's staged, and I hate that subtext of the whole "aren't they uncivilized/weird/quaint" thing.
That's the point though really, it would hold far less interest if it weren't for the weird factor. It IS gross to our sugarblasted Western palates, and seeing someone eat a sheep's eye or a camel bollock is amusing. If I ate camel bollocks every day I wouldn't find it very interesting no matter which country they were eating it in, but I don't so it's good.
I think you're reading too much into the whole 'underfed locals laughed at' thing. My mate at uni went abroad to do some work experience filming native South Americans in the Amazon and they get renumerated handsomely for their time and co-operation with no obligations. I'm sure it's not the same everywhere 'cause not everyone is as lovely as the BBC but it's not like the locals don't know that their cooking is going to be seen as a curiosity, or that they're being filmed because their differences are strange and odd to whitey.
There was a 'reverse' travel show done on TV here a while ago in which some Pacific tribe fellows were flown to England having never visited anywhere outside their island before. It was really good actually, it could have gone so badly wrong but it was free of patronising sentiment and was pretty awesome all round. They got to operate the camera themselves and it was really interesting seeing what THEY found interesting and it helped greatly to avoid the feeling they were just being filmed for our amusement. And they responded in exactly the same way we would do if transplanted into their society for a week or two. They laughed to themselves at the suits and etiquette a British traditional meal requires, shook their heads in disbelief at the food we ate (but respectfully tried), and frolicked happily in the snow having never seen the stuff in their lives. It was genuinely lovely that moment actually.
Whereas I think because we as 'civilised' types are required to be seen as worldly, it's not acceptable for us to laugh good-naturedly at the oddly fussy customs or strange costumes from other parts of the globe, display trepidation towards 'ethnic' food provided in a spirit of hospitality or generally be seen as displaying anything other than sober understanding. 'Oh that makes sense, yes I can see why they do that and I respect that, not odd at all'. The day I stop getting a mix of fascination and disbelief at some of the crazy things are brothers around the planet do will be a sad day for sure
The documentary was called 'Meet the Natives', if you wish to seek it out. I expect there's probably been a USA version done at some point, I hope it was as engaging
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