Sorry. I really wanted t like this - I mean, Rain, Korean scenery, motorbikes, and exquisite food ... what's not to love?
Well, for me, RAIN's companion, Hong Chul. He must be the most vacuous, irritating, mindless, attention-seeking companion on the planet, and (sadly) I found his interventions did nothing but distract from things which could have been more interesting. He spent his journey "waaaaaaaaaaaah"ing at everything while seldom making any coherent comment or adding anything of value, and "Netflix, Netflix, Netflix"ing all over the shop - as if any of us actually care how a programme is being delivered to us. It was the running "joke" of the show, but, frankly, not funny even a little bit. Perhaps he was hoping that Netflix "magic" would turn this series into the next Squid Game.... well, it did not.
He was at his most engaging when (rarely) he was so mesmerised by the scenery that he shut up and LOOKed! THAT was much more powerful than any of his fake enthusiasm. And he repeatedly laughed at nothings, with a crazed and humourless expression in his eyes - never went so far as sinister, but very off-putting and, well, very very very fake.
To be fair to Hong-Chul, I believe he's very experienced in entertainment shows, and am certain he has great skills. He was determined to demonstrate that a Korean male CAN wear unisex clothing anywhere. Good for him. He's also a very good swimmer. I imagine he is also pretty bright.
I suspect he and Rain were meant to be foils for each other, perhaps each bringing something out in the other - they are indeed very different. Rain isn't perfect - and much humour was made of the fact that his wife in the past said her ideal man is humorous and has double eyelids - well we all know Rain has mono-lids, and he's described here as unfunny and dull. Perhaps they thought that he on his own would be too serious or too boring. But I found him a million times more interesting than Hong Chul, who sadly just got in the way.
Rain is clearly meticulous, can perhaps be controlling (from little things he said - usually eats only one meal a day, wouldn't allow his wife to go clubbing with one of the "visiting" celebrities - half a joke, but was it?), hard-training, loves and is very skilled about food, and may be a bit straight-laced. However, he can laugh at himself, treats everyone with respect (actually, so does Hong Chul), and is very honest.
The moments in this series where I wanted to pay attention were those where the landscape and scenery dominated (and that wasn't really the case in the biking shots, when we were looking at Rain and Hong Chul who was mainly just screaming) and when Rain was ... well, doing anything. His abs were out there in episode one, and no hardship was imposed on the viewer, though I had thought it not likely to continue. I was wrong - they were in fact all over the place, and several viewings of him doing his daily work-out, in which he regularly loses count and starts again. Hong Chul says, good naturedly, that he's a bit dumb. But those abs could sharpen a knife.
I tend to feel this kind of programme is most effective when the viewer can imagine themselves on the trip. I almost made it, but I kept getting kicked out of that perspective, not only by my fantasies of murdering Hong Chul (apologies) but also by the regular invisible intervention of "crew" or others, who organised several things which appeared without explanation. Bikes got changed, there was a train trip in the middle of the bike trip, a night camping where the kit (and Rain's immaculately groomed standard poodle) has arrived before our intrepid pair, and then the (very posh) camping kit magically erects itself. Of COURSE we know there has to be organisation behind the scenes of this kind of programme, but I think they got the balance a bit wrong. I wonder just how much fun would we have had (for example) watching Rain and Hong Chul working out together how to erect that tent? Maybe they tried that and it did not show them at their best! Or maybe it was just (another) opportunity missed.
I forced myself to persist but had to abandon at the start of Ep 6.
A nice idea for a series, but sadly failed by - I felt - poor casting.