Abandoned HULU Review: The Best Travel Show?

Reality shows have a tendency of amplifying events to get a reaction out of the audience. Abandoned is far from such exaggerated shows. It is a solemn look at regions that have been left behind for various reasons. It is an unusual take on travel-based reality television, that is extremely well-executed.

1. Quick Review

Abandoned is both an emotional and physical experience. It is in equal parts saddening and informative. Although it loses focus in a few places, the premise makes for it.

2.Series Info

3. Is It Worth Watching?

With its unfamiliar destinations and great execution, Abandoned will renew your interest in the reality show genre.

I. Plot

The narrator or the host of the show is Rick McCrank. He is a skateboarder by profession, so skating plays a big part in the series. Wondering how a travel show is related to skating? Simple, the host travels to the deserted areas and skates in the ‘naturally-built’ skating courses.

In the first episode of the show, the host visits a few malls in northeastern Ohio that have been abandoned for years. He talks about the gradual closing down of the mall and the reasons behind it.

Throughout the series, Rick explores other places that have been left ditched by civilisation- highways, towns and nuclear powerplants.

One particular episode strikes a chord with almost everyone. Rick goes to St Louis to look at the many derelict schools over there. He looks at massive schools, some that are hundreds of years old, that have been reduced to dust and rubble.

Students who graduated from high schools are interviewed in the series. They reveal that a rising number of people leave St. Louis to go to other states every year. This leads to drying up of funds which eventually causes the schools to shut down.

II. Detailed Analysis

Throughout the series, all the sites that Rick McCrank visits, have signs of vandalism all over it. However, the spray paint cannot distract attention from the sorry states of the buildings.

The places that were abandoned were done so because of commercial mismanagement, sheer luck or just greed.  

Most of the buildings that are shown in the series boast of good architecture and grandeur. The Rolling Acres Mall, which is the subject of the first episode, at its peak, had 140 retail stores along with a movie theatre and a food court. The parking space could park 75000 cars. The mall also had a palm tree promenade, a feature that is not found in modern malls anymore.

Similarly, in the schools of St.Louis, the auditoriums, the gyms and the classrooms are large and beautiful. Even after neglect, these features are properly visible.

The series does a great job of showing how materialistic capitalist society has become. Human beings tend to abandon anything at the slightest possible inconvenience.

But the show is not preachy about its message. It conveys the message through a non-biased and open view. Rather, the abandoned places are shown to be the byproduct of a very fast-paced life that does not wait for anything or anyone.

Since the show is based on such a serious topic, the host’s skateboarding is a great distraction for the viewers. It creates a subtle balance between the solemn and the cheerful parts of the show.

III. Characters

Rick McCrank is a good host for the docu-series, with his friendly nature and non-judgemental views. However, he is a Canadian which creates a culture block between him and the people he interviews. This might be a slight drawback since the locations are intrinsically American.

The special part of the series is the people who are interviewed in it. These interviewees are the only ones who have a connection to these places and are keeping them from fading into oblivion. Raymundo, a Salton Sea resident who features in episode four, deserves a mention.

California has been in a water crisis for a long time. Raymundo explains what led to the shrinking and poisoning of the water bodies around the state. Owens Lake and the Salton Sea have been drying up and spewing toxic gases. It is because of pollution in the water bodies due to oil spills and waste dumpings. His words are disheartening but beautifully said.

4. Grade

5. Final thoughts

The show has a nostalgic factor to it. For many, those abandoned sites form a part of America they grew up in. The show is a must-watch for thrill-seekers and those interested in travel. Even though the parts involving skating might be annoying to some people, the main material is good enough to compensate for it.