Did anyone else take it as a personal insult when Louis Theroux left Netflix? As an obsessive Louis Theroux fan and documentary-watcher, I actually felt hurt. I probably average one Louis Theroux a day at the moment, regardless of the fact I’ve watched every single one of them more times than I’d like to count. My weird anxiety safety behaviour aside, I felt stuck for stuff to watch. As my sister insightfully said during one of our phone calls, documentaries seem like a good pick at the moment considering a lot of us feel like we’re living in a dystopian novel. I agreed because it seemed like a good excuse for my relentless doc watching that started long before the pandemic – I’m not weird!! It’s normal!! I genuinely think there is truth to what she said. More than ever, I’d much rather whack a documentary on while I dither away doing my various pandemic activities; tidying my room, baking, cooking dinner, compulsively making soup, etc.

With Louis gone, I had to find something slightly more casual than your standard Netflix true crime documentary series to watch. I adore true crime, (who doesn’t), but sometimes I struggle to concentrate on what’s going on whilst I’m busy doing other stuff. I needed something exciting and weird, but something a little less serious. This is where my boyfriend comes in with Dark Tourist, a one-season series following New Zealander David Farrier as he goes to bizarre places all over the world that attract “dark tourists” – travelers who are attracted by death and tragedy. I’d heard of the docu-series but never got around to watching it – why watch something new when there’s like a hundred other documentaries that you already know you like????? Seems weird, but I went along with my boyfriend’s suggestion and we watched it… and I LOVED it. A big joke in the series is that David Farrier is a Louis Theroux wannabe, but I really didn’t see this. Yeah, he’s tall and dark haired and wears glasses, but I think he’s a good journalist in his own right and I found him fun to watch. There’s something really endearing about the way he just goes with the flow and lets himself be carried away, taking part in a voodoo ceremony, – where he gets covered in a dead bird’s blood and a tantalising gin-saliva mix – joining in with the Ma’nene funeral rite in Southeast Asia, and injuring himself on a mirror in his hotel room (a highlight). He’s soft-spoken and funny and actually quite ballsy, doing a couple of really questionable things which I won’t detail here.

Some critics said the series is pretty shallow. I agree that it’s not overly poignant but it’s escapism I’m looking for here, and when there are moments that are touching, they really pay off because you aren’t expecting them. There’s a particular moment when David swims in a radioactive lake to look out for. I think this series really works because Farrier isn’t too probing with his questions, and because he’s not, as an audience – apart from a few parts – we kind of just accept a lot of the things we’re seeing. It’s incredibly non-judgmental and that’s one of the reasons I like it. It’s not unlike Louis Theroux’s Weird Weekends which I absolutely adore. Farrier meets a lot of characters, all of whom are eccentric, funny or interesting. Dark Tourist definitely satisfies the side of all of us that’s intrigued by the darker sides of life, as well as showing us different communities through a non-judgmental lens.

*you can watch this on Netflix.

Meg Vodrey