Queens made sense because it's the most ethnically diverse location in the world.

Season finale aired last night. It was Portugal.

What an incredibly dull hour. Bourdain just sat in high end restaurants and country homes, drinking wine and bullshitting with old people. ZZZZZZZ

There was some nice B-Roll here and there and he threw in a few nuggets, but IMO most of the interviews end up being the worst part of the show.

He did hang out with a few younger people, but that didn't really make up for the rest of the hour. I did find it interesting hearing about how Portugal has a high unemployment rate and people with high degrees end up working in restaurants and bars instead. Thought that was an interesting factoid.

Bourdain mentioned that he had not been to Portugal in 16 years. Dude, show me some fun things about it. Night life and fun activities. Hanging out in high end restaurants and country homes are fucking boring.

I like Bourdain, but his show frustrates me sometimes. Out of the 8 episodes, I would say maybe 3 were actually decent? I liked Laos, Queens and maybe Trinidad.

I heard Bourdain was seen this Spring filming an episode in Pittsburgh for next season. That will be one that I skip.

Pittsburgh? I guess they must not have been able to get permission to film in Peoria.

Was that the episode where he was talking with Danny Trejo? I saw bits and pieces as it was playing on a TV in a restaurant I took one of my kids to and it didn't look all that interesting. I've seen in a couple of times and I liked what I saw, otherwise.

No this aired last night.

That episode was Los Angeles that originally aired 2 months ago.

Ah, well, that one aired, as well. Maybe it was a back-to-back thing.

I only recently started watching this on Netflix. Overall, I like Bourdain's shows, but this one is pretty hit or miss. Some episodes are really good, like the Jerusalem one, or even entertaining without being informative like the Sicily one. Others are just flat out boring, like the Montana ep.

New season premiered tonight.

It was Singapore, which he's visited before, but I thought this was a really solid hour. He didn't hang out with stuffy old fart chefs in fine dining restaurants....I hate those shows.

He actually spent pretty much the whole hour talking about Singapore's food culture and talking to some locals and hanging out at old school food courts. Some really good looking food showcased. I was just in Singapore about 3 1/2 months ago and it was cool seeing some things I saw over there.

I enjoyed this one as well. I agree with the points you made, and Singapore is a very interesting place. Plus it was a location that made it tough for him to continually tie in crapping on America into the discussion, which forced him to spend more time delving into the place he was visiting. I hope this season is more of the same because I was pretty close to dropping the show.

Just when I thought the new season gets off to a promising start, they do an episode like The French Alps....ZZZZZZZ

Very dull episode. Why would Bourdain's producers think it's interesting to see him and Eric Ripert eating cheese, caviar and drinking wine in the mountains? This is crap that stuffy rich Europeans do.

Honestly, many parts of Europe I don't find interesting at all and the French Alps is one of them.

Tonight was the season finale. Bourdain was hanging out in South Italy with his girlfriend Asia Argento.

Actually not a bad episode. They showed some very nice B-roll of the area he was hanging out at and he did some fun things.

Asia could be a really hot woman if she didn't have some many fucking tattoos. She does have a sexy smoker's voice. But man, Bourdain is really starting to age. He's been drinking and smoking a lot in his shows and it looks like he's aged 10 years in the last few years.

This was actually not a bad season. There were a few duds....Pittsburgh, The French Alps, and Seattle. But overall some interesting sites.

BTW, my DVR picked up a special 2 hour "Parts Unknown" a few weeks ago, which was actually a 2 hour movie about some "famous" chef that was supposedly a huge star, but eventually dropped out of the limelight. Bourdain appeared on camera at the beginning to introduce it. I tried watching some, but eventually I gave up. 1st of all, I had no idea who he was. 2nd, why should I care if some famous chef decided to become a recluse? I saw no point in watching it unless you're very familiar with celebrity chefs.

Who was the chef?

Jeremiah Tower.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5163286/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_3

This was the 2 hour movie that was shown as an episode of Parts Unknown.

I have no idea who he is.

He was one of the first chefs at Chez Panisse up in Berkeley. I've yet to dine there but it has an amazing reputation. He's considered one of the founders of "California Cuisine."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chez_Panisse

I honestly could do without the personal life in Asia involved considering in another few years that will probably be over and he'll move on to the next cookie cutter same type as her he's in to and these back episodes will just feel as odd as the ones with his ex wife do now.

I enjoyed the Jeremiah Tower documentary, particularly the part regarding Stars as that was the first high end restaurant I ever went to.

He's smoking again? I thought he quit when his daughter was born?

Yeah he's smoking again, especially once he started dating Asia last year.

In the Seattle episode 2 weeks ago, he smoked pot since it's legal there and he went into a local pot shop.

New season starts tonight, 4/29/18.

Here are the 8 destinations that Bourdain is visiting for season 11

This season looks like it could be an improvement over recent ones. I'll stick it out for another.

I watched the West Virginia episode last night.

For the most part, I liked it. Bourdain did a good job presenting the state and it's people. Also, he went a little into the High School sports culture.

However, they did touch a little on gun control laws as he interviewed some citizens about their right to bear arms. Then there was a voice over mentioning this was filmed before the Vegas shooting and all the other shootings last year.

Aside from that, it was a decent opener. A little strange why they chose West Virginia for an extended episode.

He just killed himself.

The final episode of season 11 aired on Sunday. Bourdain went to Bhutan with director Darren Aronofsky.

I've seen Bhutan covered in other travel videos on YouTube videos and it's honestly not a very interesting place. Very small and remote. Not exactly a tourist hot spot.

Even though the episode was filmed about 6 months ago according to reports, it was kind of eerie how death was a topic in it, including a death ritual performed by Bourdain.

There's no word if any of the season 12 episodes he shot will air. Might be difficult since they were in the middle of production and the last episode was incomplete due to his death. And I'm sure there was some ADR needed for the other ones that were shot.

I deleted the season record from the DVR last night after watching the episode. Even if an episode or two comes from season 12 production I feel like this was a good place to say goodbye.