Dark Tourist season two: a hypothetical

If we'd made a season two, this is what it *might* have looked like

Hey!

So, part of what I want to do with Webworm is lift the curtain a little on things in my documentary world. You are kind enough to support this newsletter financially — and while that allows me to bring you fresh stories, I also think it’s fair I take you behind-the-scenes on what I’m working on, or have been working on.

Maybe it’ll be fun, maybe we’ll all learn something, maybe you’ll discover something new.

Some of you might have come to this newsletter because you watched Dark Tourist on Netflix, a series I made with a bunch of New Zealand friends. This series was such a group effort, and it would not have happened without a killer team. Organising getting to places like Turkmenistan doesn’t come easy, let alone filming and writing and editing and getting a series like that delivered on time. Making a film or a series is a chaotic miracle of moving parts and it stuns me that anything ever makes it to the screen.

Now of course when you are making a series one, you are thinking about a series two. Now just to be clear - we aren’t making a series two (maybe one day, not right now — also, pandemic) — but we did do a bunch of research and write a bunch of ideas down for where we’d like the show to go in its second season.

And because that isn’t happening any time soon, I wanted to show you what it might have looked like. And in the words of James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy…

Truth be told, in this post-pandemic world — I don’t think a series outline like this would be possible. Not only because international travel has changed forever (we haven’t seen a shift like this since 9/11) — I think the whole framework of “dark tourism” has changed. For one thing, the whole world is kinda dark right now.

During New Zealand’s level four lockdown, I took some solo walks around abandoned city streets and felt like a dark tourist in my own city. I didn’t need to leave to experience dark tourism.

I also think this isn’t the time in history that humans want to watch a whole bunch of “dark” content right now. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been watching stuff like The Queen’s Gambit, Rick & Morty, Pen15 and the eternally optimistic Star Trek: Discovery. Look, of course I watched Possessor — but generally my watching habits have been more upbeat.

In saying all that, I still think these ideas would have made for a solid season two of a show I’m really proud of. I think we learnt a lot in season one, and could have made an even better season two.

Many thanks to Justin Hawkes who worked with me while mapping out what season two could look like. He was heavily involved in directing season one of the show — and is the brains behind some of my favourite episodes. There would have been no k-hole Turkmenistan, or Charles Manson madness without Justin.

David.

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Preface:

These are some of the ideas we had for episodes 1 - 4 of a hypothetical Dark Tourist season two. I will outline ideas for episodes 5 - 8 in the next newsletter, as they won’t all fit in this one email!

This is like an ideas dump: from here, they would be whittled down to three stories for each episode. Some of the text is mine, some of it will have been drawn from other sources (sorry this is from a badly maintained Google Doc!)

As a general rule for season one, we had one story that was the “meat” of the episode (Fukushima nuclear tourism in the Japan episode), then one story that was morally quite challenging (Aokigahara forest) and another that was visually stunning (Hashima Island)

The process of narrowing down the ideas for season two would factor in the above thoughts, but also other things like:

• The characters in each story (compelling, good on camera, a personal story to tell)

• The ability of us to get there (and not run over budget!)

• How appropriate it would be for me to cover the topic in a show like Dark Tourist.

As you read through, you’ll probably have some ideas about that last one: some ideas for stories here are clearly totally inappropriate. They could be too insensitive to dig into on a show that moves as quickly as DT, too dark, or simply too dangerous.

So, here we go.

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Episode one: Asia

Philippines Holy Week Crucifixion

Crucifixion in the Philippines is a devotional practice held every Good Friday, and are part of the local observance of Holy Week. Devotees are willingly crucified in imitation of Jesus Christ’s suffering and death.

Robot Sex Hotels Japan

People liked the dinosaur hotel — so let’s do the next logical step. Send Farrier in for a night? Video diary?

Korea Fake Funerals

Farrier attends his own death. He fears death, this may be the perfect way for him to confront it and go internal. Maybe he joins someone about to experience it for themselves, but decides to take part last minute? Reference.

More than 25,000 people have participated in mass “living funeral” services at Hyowon Healing Center since it opened in 2012, hoping to improve their lives by simulating their deaths.

North Korea

Obviously. In season one we did Turkmenistan instead as more viable, but can push for this again.

The Moonies, Seoul, South Korea

Mass Weddings, cult, chaos.

Episode two: South America

Takanakuy - Peru 

It’s like The Purge movies, but without the deaths. Just fighting. Takanakuy (“to hit each other”) is an annual established practice of fighting fellow community members held on 25 December. Near Cuzco in Peru. 

El Santo Malandro - Venezuela

Santeria is become very popular in Venezuela. And with it, a new saint is in town - “El Santo Malandro” aka “The Thug Saint”. It’s like Like Santa Muerte, but with a thug saint instead of a skeleton with a scythe.

Episode three: India

Towers of Silence - South Mumbai

In exclusive Malabar Hill, the city’s dwindling Parsi community continues with the Zoroastrian tradition of disposing of dead bodies by exposing them to scavenger birds.

Cannibalistic Aghori Monks

Varanasi, North India and/or a Varanasi funeral. 

The traditions of the Aghor stem from the belief that everything is beautiful and a creation of the gods. So they rail against discrimination and the remnants of the caste system, which historically separated Indians into rigid social strata. Eating human flesh and excrement are also meant to prove that nothing is base. The Aghor get the flesh from corpses floating down the river (never directly off a burning pyre at a ghat), which family members push into the Ganges River if they don’t have enough money for cremation. And under the privacy of the new moon, they chant mantras, make offerings to Shiva, and consume it.

Muharram

Many of the male and female participants congregate together in public for ceremonial chest beating (matam) as a display of their devotion to Imam Husayn and in remembrance of his suffering. In some Shi’a societies some male participants incorporate knives or razors swung upon chains into their matam. The people of jahiliyyah used to mourn through loud lamentations, by tearing their clothes and by beating their cheeks and chests.

Bhopal Gas Tragedy": Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh

A gas leak incident on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant. It was considered as of 2010 to be the world's worst industrial disaster. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. The highly toxic substance made its way into and around the small towns located near the plant. Have notes on this and invites from some families who reached out after watching Dark Tourist.

Ship Graveyard, Gulf of Khambat

The shipyards at Alang recycle approximately half of all ships salvaged around the world. It is considered the world's largest graveyard of ships.

Episode four - Middle East

Christian Zionists

Christian Zionists usually come into the news when the more wealthy ones or politicians support or contribute to right wing politicians. They try to walk on the Jordan river like Jesus, support settlements and probably hope they’ll bring the Antichrist (also exist in USA). Freaky religious vibe.

Tour into the super hardcore religious communities  

In Jerusalem/Bnei Brak

Showing both edge cases of the Israeli-Palestine conflict

By going to a far-right Israeli settlement in the west bank and then to meet a terror (or resistance, however Farrier’s guide sees it) group (Islamic Jihad/Fatech/Hamas).

Tutankhamun, Egypt

Goes without saying. Need to find story angle here — something Farrier can take part in.

Dead Sea Sinkholes 

This terrifying geological phenomena is caused by the decrease of the dead sea’s level (lowest place on earth). The ground is simply imploding and taking things with it. Let Farrier abseil in? Go on with a zany geologist? Need to find characters for this one. Visual story primarily.

Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Mecca, can only get there as a journalist. Farrier signs up? Their leader ordered the assassination a journalist which is pretty dark.

The Golan Heights

Occupied by Israel in 1967 from Syria is not a densely populated region, today is a popular for tourism and wine production. Many tourist come here to look over at the Syrian civil war from a distance, at the top of Mount Bental - but a specialist can also take you with a Jeep to the border itself and see abandoned tank and bases, and hear all about what goes on at the other side.

Black Magic, Bahla, Oman / The most haunted place in the middle east

The Jinn are able to possess humans and transform into other forms like different animals or people that you would not have seen before. There are events called ‘Zaar’, and they are when people get possessed on purpose as they say that it's refreshing. There is a story in the tv show called American Gods, where they include a Jinn and that's actually a popular story where the person will have sex with the Jinn in order for it to grant your wish.

Syrian Camps, Jordan

Every day, scores of people, mostly from Asian countries, reach Amman to visit some of the World Heritage sites, including Petra, where Bollywood stars Harrison Ford and Sean Connery shot Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

And then, the tourists, led by flag-totting guides herding them in a group, travel in air-conditioned vehicles to see for themselves the plight of thousands of Syrian refugees languishing in the deserts close to the Syria-Jordan borders.

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Phew! That was a very tough outline of my ideas on how the first four episodes of season two Dark Tourist would look. You can find Part Two here.

Weigh in in the comments about what you’d like to have seen, or what you think would have been terrible ideas. I’m always curious.

Who knows, we might still make it sometime — but even if we don’t, it was a fun exercise to think about. Season one started just like this, a bunch of ideas on paper pitched to Netflix. So I was excited to share this one with you.

While I formatted this out (it was even more of a mess in the Google Doc) I realised how grateful I am to those I made this show with back in 2018.

Mark McNeill (it was his idea!) and Carthew Neal (he produced Tickled, too) who were EPs, Polly who tirelessly kept the whole team on track in so many ways, Dom and Jake who shot the whole thing and made it look great and made everyone comfortable to share their stories. Sophie and Hayden who not only AD’d but also shot and smoothed the way, Colin and Justin who directed and did recces, tirelessly figuring out what worked. Tim and Danny and Colleen who recorded pristine sound in some of the strangest, most difficult audio situations. Charlotte, Antonia and Anna who made all the cogs turn back in the office (they are the real Dark Tourists!), Ian and Paul who helped write — Simon, Richard and Dan who edited — Chia who wrangled our data and sorted our edit workflow was a gift from God and never moaned about all our shit. The fixers in places like Benin and Kazakhstan who lead the way. You, for caring enough to read this far. So, so much thanks. All those people I’ve forgotten to thank just now. It takes a village to make a thing, and I’m glad we got to make this particular thing. It opened my mind in ways I never imagined.

David.