I love me some Karl, I thought he was the best part of Derek, and in an Idiot Abroad he was truly remarkable and a breath of fresh air in the overdone travel show genre. But something was missing here in the Moaning of Life and after I watched the entire series I realized Ricky Gervais was 100% correct when he said Karl is at his best when he is stuck in the corner getting poked with a stick. I didn't even care too much for Ricky or Stephen in an Idiot Abroad, I thought they could have shown more compassion for Karl and his misadventures once in awhile. But now I have to admit they are vital for the success of this type of program with Karl. Karl needs his anti-karl as much as superman needs bizarro superman to make a truly epic show. Might be painful, might be uncomfortable at times, but well worth it for the insight that only comes in those circumstances where Karl excels. An Idiot Abroad felt like a true adventure with Karl, this not so much.

This is a great and refreshing followup of 'An Idiot Abroad', a documentary style travel show through an unfiltered angle via Karl reflecting (aka whinging) on culture shock and his new confounding environment, and challenging tasks or pranks, always planned by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, with the sole aim of catapulting Karl out of his comfort zone. Physical shtick and hilarity ensues, which would often times lead Karl to ponder philosophically aloud.This time, Karl flies more solo as he investigates life's big questions through the lens of different cultures. He takes his experience as a seasoned traveler and applies it to age-old conundrums like marriage, happiness, money. In the first episode on marriage, he experiences an Indian wedding as a groom assistant, he signs up for pheromone dating, he visits Las Vegas and offers his own satirical take on quickie weddings.I think this is an accessible and humorous pop-culture approach to philosophy or anthropology. Compared An Idiot Abroad, his unapologetic and blunt observations (unavoidable for anyone when faced with unusual human tricks like body modification), stem from earnest and genuine childlike curiosity, rather than mean spirited, or even ethnocentric or chauvinistic compared to the earlier episodes of An Idiot Abroad; maybe travel really did broaden his mind. At the end of the day, he's stating the obvious to the tune of observational comedy (paraphrasing: "he's got wife and kids whose house has no roof, and they're spending all this time running to catch a wooden ball!").One noticeably welcome improvement over An Idiot Abroad: there's less deer-in-the-headlights moments, and more going-along-blending-in-the- crowd attitude. This time he seems more game to be part of experiment rather than a spectator taken hostage. Definitely more enjoyable to watch.

This show is even better than Karl's last one. The insights are wonderful to watch as they unfold - evolve - grow. I loved his last series (An Idiot Abroad), with all the comedy. Karl has grown out of his distaste of all things foreign, not quite embraced those cultural differences, yet shows his courage to not only seek to understand the culture, explore the differences - more than that, through his experience - he attempts to apply his brand of practical culture in order to better understand those cultures around him. We all do it - but in his not so eloquent style, he helps us all work our way through it as he shows us how it could be done.What this series does is take it to the next level, to give it that philosophical advantage, without missing the whole point - life and all the things we do are weird, wonderful, and most of all (most of the time) - funny. Great job and I expect it will continue with great success. Kudos.

An idiot is bored with the meaninglessness of his existence and seeks to broaden his horizons in an attempt to become a better man. PSYCH! It's actually about a little roundy-headed, chimp-like Manch moron who is being paid handsomely to travel the world and seek out freakishly happy freaks in an attempt to understand why they seem so much happier than him. For example, the first episode sees Karl probing the human compulsion to get married. He's been in a relationship with the same woman for half his life and they've never tied the knot because he doesn't see the point. Can anyone in the world possibly change his outlook on what he's always considered to be the myth of so-called "Wedded Bliss"?The only reason Karl Pilkington has agreed to make this "Travel Mockumentary", that could very vaguely be referred to as "An Idiot Abroad Series 4", is because those brilliant "bullies" (aka Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant) are no longer at the helm. They have absolutely no say in where he goes or what he does. Karl is finally in charge of his own itinerary... and there's no Dwarf-For-Hire tagging along to act as a "hindrance" (No offense Warwick). This means that if Karl should find himself in a lacklustre location and/or a sticky situation, he has no one to blame but himself. LET THE FUN BEGIN!How's my review? Call 1800 DROP OUT :p Here, have a few more quotation marks and misplaced commas ",",", :DCheck out my other IMDb lists - http://www.imdb.com/user/ur23177327/?ref_=nv_usr_prof_2BEST BRIT-COMS: MY TOP 100 POM-COMS - http://www.imdb.com/list/tk9Ev4e6mBY/