Genre: Documentary
Number of episodes: 8
Year: 2020
Starring: Zac Efron, Darin Olien
Description: In this travel show, actor Zac Efron journeys around the world with wellness expert Darin Olien in search of healthy, sustainable ways to live.
Review: In the documentary series “Down to Earth with Zac Efron”, actor Zac Efron travels around the world to learn more about sustainability.
A few years ago Zac Efron met health guru Darin Olien. This elderly surfer dude told Zac all about sustainability and health food. Netflix saw a travel show in that. In “Down to Earth with Zac Efron” it becomes especially clear how little both men know about the world around them.
The journey starts in Iceland, with a tourist route along some attractions. Together with his friend Darin, Zac learns how energy is generated in a sustainable way and the men eat in an exclusive restaurant. In France they do exactly the same. They hang out with tourists and get information about the sustainable water supply in Paris.
In both episodes Zac doesn’t seem to understand much of it. He looks a bit surprised and reacts to all the information with ‘oh wow, my mind is blown’. Darin also adds no more than a few clichés about how important sustainability is and that we have to take good care of planet earth. When the men aren’t tourists, they go to visit Darin’s friends. In Costa Rica they ignore the locals and go directly to an ecological village in the jungle. There a friend of Darin has founded his own community that lives from nature. No matter how cool this idea is, it is totally inapplicable outside this specific location.
“Down to Earth with Zac Efron’ has sincerely good intentions. Zac and Darin care about nature and want to promote a sustainable way of life. They only combine that with some cool trips paid for by Netflix and sponsors. That’s why this travel program stays very much on the surface and you don’t really learn much from it. They also rarely give tips that can really help you and most of it, I believe, was already common knowledge. Zac Efron provides a smart and funny voice-over and he’s a joy to watch. But overall it’s very clear he’s out of his comfort zone and he doesn’t really captivate. And Darin doesn’t add much either. And during the episode in France, where they are shortly accompanied by actress Anna Kendrick, both men are overshadowed by this witty woman.
I also found that the series was oddly edited. Some images from behind-the-scenes have been left in. like an argument with an insulted doctor and a ‘depressed’ Zac Efron complaining about Hollywood. They didn’t seem to fit in with the rest and they might as well leave them out altogether.
If someone like Zac Efron wasn’t attached to a travel program like this, no one would be interested. He is a nice guy with good intentions and you get to know him a bit better through this show. But overall “Down to Earth with Zac Efron” isn’t a memorable series and especially didn’t reach the goals it was aiming for.
