If there's one thing that modern Netflix documentaries mostly lack, it's depth or analysis, but that wasn't the case in the early days of Netflix Originals when the streaming was still proving itself. That's a long way of saying "happy birthday, Dark Tourist, we miss you".
Dark Tourist, still available on Netflix now, was a docuseries released on Friday, July 20, 2018, so it just celebrated its eighth birthday. And though we've seen plenty of documentaries from Netflix since then, I'm still waiting for one as interesting or unique as it was.
If you don't know the phrase "dark tourism", it's in essence the idea of holidaying in places strongly associated with death; think battlefields or memorials. Those are tame examples, but Dark Tourism is looking for something a little more potent.
The series is hosted by Kiwi journalist David Farrier, and in each episode, he travels to a dark tourism hotspot to experience the culture and speak to other tourists on what drives them to the area.
Across the eight-part run, he goes on a Jeffrey Dahmer tour, visits the scene of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, experiences a voodoo rite and tries to sneak into various restricted areas.
To sell it to you in one comparison, Dark Tourist is Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends for the modern day (well, the pre-Covid day). Farrier is a great presenter in that he's willing to put himself in risky situations to tell a great story, yet knows when to pull back and let his subjects speak for themselves. Lots of the areas visited in the series are ones you've likely never heard of, with Farrier seemingly staying as far off the beaten track as possible.
Back when the series came out, I interviewed Farrier and he told me "our intent was the show was to go to these places where something horrific might have happened, poke some of the ethical issues, and then focus on the humanity around the sidelines".
It was a fantastic show, so why was there never a second season? Farrier answered that himself in a 2021 blog post in which he seemingly pointed the finger at the Covid-19 pandemic for blinking out hopes for a second season, although he did share what he was hoping to show.
Covid was a turning point for Netflix, with the increased screen time that comes from isolation coinciding (or forcing) a major sea change for the streamer's output.
Eight years on from the release of Dark Tourist, I don't see the streamer releasing another similar show, as it instead churns out frustratingly vapid docs or hyper-sensationalized series. And it's a shame, because Netflix viewers could handle better, as shown by the scant high-quality releases still broadcast on the platform. People will always want intelligent stories; as Farrier himself said in the aforementioned interview, talking about the appeal of dark tourism: "I think increasingly a lot of people want to be surprised and not just laze by a pool reading a book when they visit a new place.".
If you've already seen and enjoyed Dark Tourist, may I also recommend the book "Visit Sunny Chernobyl", a 2012 non-fiction which you can find on Amazon US here and Amazon UK here. It focuses on environmental and ecological dark tourism rather than mortality-centric places but it covers a lot of the same ground in a different way.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
