Departures Online

One of the reviews of this show has so much misplaced hate for one the hosts in it, that I figure I should give my two cents about Departures. First of all, this is an amazing travel show. Three friends traveling around the world and going to the most unexpected places to find history, culture and incredible beauty. Scott, one of the hosts, is the creator behind the show (with Andre the cameraman) and as you expect he is the more serious, well-educated and very interested about the country's culture and history. On the other hand, Justin is an outgoing dude, sometimes silly, not the brightest individual, but also very likable, real and funny. The dude is looking to have a good time everywhere, but you can see he is also enjoying and interested in everything they see, regardless if they have a beer on their hands or not.

Scott's choice of Justin as his travel mate was extremely smart. Not only you can actually see that they are best friends, but their personal characteristics balance each other very well and make this show even more entertaining. Also, throughout all three seasons you can see Justin's amazing growth as he becomes a seasoned traveler, and that shows how much you can learn just from getting out of your comfort zone. That is one of the most remarkable things about the show.

The real star of this show, however, is behind the camera. Andre's award-winning photography is one of the most artistic and beautiful I have ever seen on a show like this. Every fantastic moment of their travels, every person, every place, every view, is captured with perfection and there is no way you would not want to visit some of this places after watching this show. The way every location is put on camera is truly inspirational. Go watch Departures!

Departures is a television series that turns the traditional approach of the travel-show genre into a cinematic adventure. The show follows the two interesting, comedic and charming hosts Justin Lukach and Scott Wilson as they take a year off of their average lives to travel to exotic locations around the world in search of unique experiences. The cinematography is absolutely inspirational,(courtesy of the brilliant creator and camera operator Andre Depuis) and has won the series a Gemini award for best photography in an information program or series. The experiences that these three friends encounter during their adventures enthrall viewers and encourage them to visit the thousands of amazing "off-the-path" locations that are all over the world. This series is definitely worth watching.

I've been actively watching this show for a few years now. There is no other show that even comes close (in this genre). I really hope this series gets 'big' and well-known. Justin and Scott are just a great match on screen, and a great traveling duo (along with their cameraman, Andre).

What really sets this show apart from other shows is the cinematography. Andre has a gift. Of course he has a nice camera, but the shots are so well-exposed and composed. I think the 'look' of a show is very important; I'm not sure what other productions are doing or using, but Andre is doing it right.

When you watch this show, you always feels as though you're with friends. If you want to travel, but don't have the means, this show is perfect. Personally, I would prefer if they went to more well-known areas... as that is equally interesting for me; I found the Japan trip to be one of the best episodes.

As well, I have to mention North Korea. This episode is educating... throw out everything you already know about this country.

Also it should be mentioned that their editing is really great too. The small and clean logos and animation work is quite good and well defined. Editing and synchronization with the music really sets the right mood.

To conclude, the photography/cinematography is well-above most television shows, and the content is extremely engaging. The most important thing though, is that when you watch this show, you feel a certain familiarity and begin to latch onto the characters.

I wish this show was on more often!

The main complaint I have seen from people is the inclusion of Justin in the show. They completely miss the point of him being there. We have Scott who is a seasoned traveler, who lives and revels in the hunt for new sights, he does his best to learn the culture and keywords of the languages he encounters. Justin on the other hand is the counterweight to it, too many travel shows have two or three perfect travelers exploring a city marveling at how amazing it is. Justin though adds an interesting point of view from what most people would be like as a tourist. So unlike some, I see his inclusion as one of the main reasons I watched the show. Some of Scott's scenes even went a little too far into the stereotypical travel show until Justin got him back on track.

The hosts, the way they present it, the direction of photography. Everything about this show is perfect.

For those who aren't familiar with this show, here's a little summary.

Three guy crew, best of friends, running around the world, going places just because they want to the world before it loses it's beauty. Two of these guys, Scott and Justin are on camera while Andre is behind the camera. They don't travel on a remarkably high budget. They just take the paths that most people wouldn't and end up showing the most beautiful sights that I've ever seen on TV.

This show should've been on for longer. It simply made me love the world more.

This is one of the best shows on t.v. You get to travel the world without leaving your house. It is one of the best ideas for a show. Travel it is a simple thing to think about, but as it has been seen in this you have to sacrifice a lot to do it. Scott, Justin, and Andre are all have very good personalities. These people make you want to come back and watch them travel the world. There are shows sort of like this that I have seen an episode for and couldn't even sit through it. The camera work in this show are some of the best I have seen on t.v. Their great work has even given them a couple Gemini nominations. This is a great accomplishment for any show. Two of my favourite episodes are when they go to Antartica and Madagascar. Great images and places I will probably never get to see. Definitely would like to go there though.

i LOVE this series it's my favourite show ever I love every episode and the whole aspect of just them being two (three if you include Andre) guys being real and travelling to some of the most beautiful places on earth. These guys make me want to travel the world. My girlfriend and I when we get married we're going to go backpacking across Ireland/Scotland. I just hope that everyone who watches this show will see the real beauty in this and try to see our world before its gone and before the real beautiful things in it are destroyed. I love how cameraman Andre makes every shot look like such beauty and i am always wondering how did they get shots like that or holy that's amazing. The show really does deserve the awards it got and cant wait to own the series.

so I just started watching this series on netflix, love the places. the camera man did a better job of showing the places traveled than the travelers. I did not care for the constant search for alcohol, the fact that you cannot go 4 hours on a train in India with ought getting drunk proves you have a serious problem. honestly this portion of the series felt like two frat guys trying to drink as much as possible, which is a horrible representation of traveling and representing a traveling company based of exotic destinations. I would rate this a 10 for cinematography. I almost stopped watching at episode one, drinking constantly, and whining oh poor me a year away from my girlfriend.. grow up, you got to visit great destinations but all you cared about was sleeping and drinking. if you block that part out its a great show.

I thought this was a refreshing change to your typical travel documentary. I originally just watched the New Zealand and Australia episodes because I am planning a trip there, but I ended up going back and watching the rest of the episodes because I enjoyed it so much. I think a lot of people are quick to criticize because they don't understand that this is about experiencing new cultures from the outsiders point of view. There was a lot of growth throughout the seasons and I thought Justin, Scott, and Andre had great chemistry, traveling together can be exhausting unless you have that. The drinking was shared with the locals and sometimes encouraged, so I think some of the other reviews exaggerate that a bit. Overall, very entertaining!

The co-host, name of Justin, is almost too irritating to allow you to enjoy this show. In between great shots of foreign vistas and ancient architecture, there is Justin the alcoholic looking extremely drunk and spouting off useless nonsense. I don't know if he's just trying to numb himself to that piercing on Scott's eyebrow or what, but he must be drunk at least 80% of the time he's on camera, regardless of location or time of day.

His pathetic attempts at the English language leave a lot to be desired in terms of diction and just general grammatical structure, on top of his wardrobe not offering much beyond a few t-shirts it looks like he dug up from when his Mom brought him to West 49 in the 10th grade.

I'm surprised Justin survived the year trekking through the occasional remote wasteland without mysteriously disappearing. They spent a lot of time on the edge of cliffs, as well as in the middle of deserts. Locations which put Scott, the other co-host, in a unique position to do away with Justin.

I recommend watching this show if only to gain appreciation for, and admire, the most patient man alive today, Scott Wilson. Their cameraman Andre Dupuis demonstrated great restraint too I guess.

Scott, the brains behind this series had sheer brilliance in his grasp until he made the decision in choosing Justin as the show's other co-star.. The series certainly has its share of wonderful moments with a diverse blend of worldly locations that feature a number of well balanced aspects surrounding culture, landscapes, beauty, poverty, and as a result has the potential to shine but often falls flat on its face due to the absolutely miserable choice in casting Justin as one of the two featured adventurers. How can one person make or break a show about traveling around the world? Well, when you meet this juvenile, ignorant, beer guzzling moron of a child trapped in a man's body, you'll understand my point as he is distracting to say the least. There will be moments in Departures where you're presented with breathtaking scenery or diverse cultural phenomenon and then Justin appears either drunk, looking for beer, complaining about India being too crowded or making terribly juvenile 'jokes' which in turn usually end up offending someone or making Canadians look like frat boys on spring break. What's baffling is that out of anyone else Scott (the kind, intelligent, fun, likable co-star and creator) could have chosen as a co-pilot, he opted to pick this meat head. Again, this could have been a marvelous, ground breaking opportunity (which often captivates and displays flashes of beauty), but ends up being so utterly aggravating because you're ultimately forced to travel with Justin as a viewer during their relentless journey around the world.. At the end of the day, yes it's still a decent series with many engaging, insightful moments but ends up as a shame really. I never though that one individual could get under my skin so much but I suppose if I had to travel with an an immature, brash, untreated alcoholic, I'd have a tough time too. Bless you Scott! You have the patience and tolerance of a saint.

When it comes to Tv shows and especially travel shows, I can be super hard to please. Most seem fake and scripted, and it's painfully obvious that the presenters have a massive crew of staff behind the camera.

Departures is one of the few exceptions. This is a show about two normal guys and their cameraman (who is also one of their friends). They aren't massive Hollywood stars or comedians, feeling pressured to make jokes at every point. Their reactions are genuine and the relationship between Justin and Scott feels so natural. This show makes it abundantly clear that these are real people.

I have never seen a show that so perfectly captures the experience of traveling. They don't just concentrate on the good things, but instead will present to you the problems alongside them, which makes the whole thing feel more genuine.

It kind of reminds me of a travel vlog, but Departures was created before the whole YouTube travel scene took off (to the best of my knowledge). Maybe it partly inspired it. I'm not sure.

Anyway, I don't have much more to say about this show except that you should watch it and experience it for yourself. This could easily be my favourite tv show of all time and I would recommend it to everyone I know.

I've discovered this show recently and was quite pleased with the fresh approach of this traveling programme. Scott and Justin are quite funny and don't take themselves too seriously which makes them very likable. However, the episode Brazil Treading Water is a great disappointment. Wild animals are treated so poorly and nature disrupted so disrespectfully that it's painful to watch! I do understand the curiosity and the thrill to explore... but NOT at the expense of the wild life. ***Spoiler*** Grabbing baby caiman a few feet away from the distressed mother and holding them for their own enjoyment; inviting a colony of harmless ants to come onto their hand to then kill them to get ride of them once they've decided that "it's not a good feeling"... well these are just a couple of examples of how little respect they have in this already fragile environment. I fail to understand the lack of discernment! I trust that they are bright enough to figure out how damaging it would be if each visitor traveling on the Amazon were behaving as such.... they've lost a viewer.

I couldn't make through episode 1! The only show slower than this one has got to be "the Ghan"....

There's thing in the world people dream about doing but can never even get close to that goal, one of them is traveling. When you travel you leave a part of your identity at home to give yourself an open mind and empty slate to be adaptive. Your show is supposed to offer going out and exploring different place people consider home. But when i watched it, all i see is disrespectful people, trashing others countries. I've been to Japan, it's an awesome country and you did an injustice to them. In Japan it's rude to take pictures without asking first, randomly using a styrofoam board to sled down a hill? Are you sure you don't still wear a diaper. Food in Japan is art, they take their jobs seriously most Japanese restaurants focus on one kind of dish and making it perfect. They are perfectionist and the food is phenomenal. It's not just sushi, there's kushiyaki, oden, yakitori, ramen, and all kinds of delicacies that are great but due to your lack of research you didn't show any of it. You put together a crap itinerary therefore a crap show. You disgraced all of these countries. I've travelled half the world and I could probably put together a better show. Who cares if two Canadians have good camera chemistry, it's not about that, it's about your ability to make people see the world and make them want to jump ship and go there, be in awe. But what can you expect from two wanna be's who got a dream of a lifetime and totally wasted it. Sometimes you wonder why people are raised with no mannerism and how ungrateful one can be. It's a totally let down that it would be rated this high. Such a hoax, stop paying off reviewers. You can't even hide how crappy this show is.

People keep mentioning how Scott and Justin have such great chemistry on screen as best friends, but I seriously can't understand how we're watching the same show. Scott's comments are engaging while Justin's random commentary is juvenile and annoying. If you're going to get drunk, why does that have to be featured in each episode? While both seem like frat boys, if you can get past this, the redeeming parts of this show are the stunning visuals by camera man Andre, and the fact that it moves fast and shows each country in a down-to-earth, personal way. Still my favorite travel show as it doesn't give you a history lecture or make you spend 30 minutes watching someone eat cuisine you can't appreciate. It's colorful, exciting and eye opening for the viewer. This is more a result of good editing that good characters however.

Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach leave their lives behind and travel the world with cameraman Andre Dupuis. What separates this from all the other travelogue? 2 things: The drinking, and the slo-mo beautiful visuals. To say Justin likes to drink is to say the Ocean is wet. Half the fun of the show is to see Justin getting drunk. We follow the threesome as they travel the world with the help of acquaintances and friends. Sometimes the local friends allow the group to experience every day life and go off the beaten tracks.

The other half is this ethereal musical montage of Scott and Justin walking in beautiful landscape. OK it's not half, but it works well to breakup the show. There's good chemistry between the serious Scott Wilson and the hard partying Justin Lukach. That's the heart of the show.

I've lived in India for two years, so I was excited to see their India segment. However, I feel they did a total "let's make this fun" whitewash over the reality of the situation. I LOVE India, but having their girl friend wear shorts and pretend to wear a scarf to cover her cleavage is NOT appropriate here. I honor and respect Indian culture too much to throw in some pretty girl with T&A to "sell" the TV series (I'm totally okay with T&A, but know that Indians in everyday life on the street are NOT). I think it does a disservice to the distinction of Indian culture and wrongfully prepares people wanting to travel here. It is NOT western, and that is what makes living here an adventure.

It is a given that two highly macho guys can pick up a scantily clad girl in any country and make some film footage. But, their implication that they are showing the viewers the "real" India is not only misleading but disheartening.

Don't think your Western values will be universally well-received. I stopped watching this series after the girl, clad in short shorts, dropped her scarf for the rickshaw race. Please stop perpetuating these stereotypes that western culture is universally accepted and "acceptable". I myself love a good "American Graffiti" reference, but most Indians would not approve--Indian women would talk smack about her and Indian men would assume she is telling them she wants to have sex with them--I don't approve of these stereotypes, but I've experienced it firsthand.

Please, guys! Let's do something less predictable.

This show is great, it makes you feel as if you've been to these countries with a couple of good ol' Canadian boys l. It can be very relatable if you're a Canadian (especially the Canada episodes) and it's a great feeling. The show is almost perfect, but there are 2 episodes that bother me Cuba, and North Korea (if you notice a connection between those countries you will understand). When the boys go to Cuba you start to understand their stance on Communism and it's very unsettling. They seem to admire Che and Castro mass murderers, know for killing gay people and dissidents in the thousands. Having an appreciation of history is great and those 2 people are very interesting, infact I enjoyed learning more about them in this show but there is no mention of the horrible things the Cuban government has done to its own people. It's just depressing that those people are not even thought of in this show and at one point Scott sits in Che's chair and thinks of how great he was. At the end of the episode Jake buy's a paint of them both (that's not so bad I guess).

North Korea This one is pretty simple... it seemed like they though the north was the victim. Now I know they couldn't say anything in the DPRK but they try during the whole episode to paint North Korea in a very good light, now they have the nicest North Korean guides but I'm sure they were planted. They also make it seem like the people are free and it's very wired. Most people know (especially people who go to North Korea) that people who live in the cities are well off and people who live in rural Korea have to eat grass to survive.

Now I know I made a case against this show but these were just the two things that bothered me. This is a great show and you should watch it, just try and do some research on the communist countries or just skip those episodes, the DPRK episode is very interesting but it's strange because if you have seen any other videos of people going there it's COMPLETELY different they go on a boat ride and do other things that makes the north look a lot better than its truly is...

Good show... Questionable ethics.

I watch this show because I enjoy travel shows. I don't care for Justin. It seems like all he does is drink beer and sleep. While I find that annoying, it isn't so annoying that I would choose to not watch it.

When this was first on TV, I watched it faithfully. Mostly (90%) for Andre's Filming, the dude has a great eye. Scott, is okay as a host. Friendly to the folks he meets, and seems interested in the world he sees. Justin, is a goff, plan and simple. Also it seems he wants to joke around, and drink. Holy frack, does he drink water? In certain place he must, because his gut must be wrecked. I love junk food and drink, but I have limits. He is a force of.. I am not really sure. They do seem douchey, which is sad, because that is not the Canadian way. Also, taking a year off to travel? That is insane unless you have a HUGE bankroll. The show is hilarious when they visit North Korea. I suggest watch the VICE special on Youtube, to see a true mirror experience. What I suggest is they should redo the show a few years later, and show what Justin, Scott, and Andre have gotten from it.

I love learning about different cultures around the world, and seeing the beautiful scenery each country has to offer. This show captures that. The cinematographer knows what he's doing. Very talented. Scott, one of the show's host, seems to share the same appreciation for cultures and being in the moment of beautiful scenery. Justin, however, was a bad choice to be the show's co-host. He almost makes it hard to watch at times with his juvenile commentary, his borderline alcoholism, and they way he disrespects personal property. He broke a snowmobile because he was riding it too hard like some andrenaline-pumped frat boy, and just left it behind without caring. He makes crude jesters in places of respectable history. It's actually very sad and frustrating to watch. Frustrating because he doesn't appreciate what's around him, and sad because it's so disrespectful to other cultures.

Mormons with a drinking problem? Or doesn't anyone else see these guys are heavily bank rolled? And someone must have a major insider connection. -Who gets to go into Libya or into the forbidden interior of Russia? It also takes a LOT of money to travel around like that. Notice they take sleeping cars and stay in some fairly highly deluxe accommodations for men who look like "boy drifters". They had fixers and govt agents wherever they went. The series is prior to the use of visual enhancing camera drones, so that's kind of too bad. The camera man Andre Dupuis and Scott make the show. I don't care for Justin's brand wit and sarcasm, bangs (for a man) and highlighted hair. Lots of missed opportunities. "Look at the rich Canadian kids traveling around" :) They were all college friends.

I loved this show and spent hours binge- watching and dreaming about being able to travel like these guys are. The hosts Scott and Justin have great chemistry and have very opposite personalities.

Scott is a very mature, respectful, almost professional type. Where as Justin is very goofy and light hearted, a little brother. But they bring very different perspectives and I like the blend they create. The camera man Andre must also be mentioned as he is very talented at what he does and captures many beautiful images throughout their travels.

The only downside is the constant drinking. Sure drinking is fun, but they tend to go over- board in a fratboy kind of way. Spoiler* and also whining about how much you miss your girlfriends while bragging about getting layed 4 or 5 times during the trip was pretty tasteless.

OK. So yes Justin is a bit of a mess in the first season but you need to understand he's there for contrast. Scott is the world traveler ready to assimilate into the local culture, Justin is the "Canadian" in a different country. I'm not sure we would fully recognize and appreciate the differences without him. As you continue to watch you get to see foreigners laugh at his "Canadian-isms". Thank you guys for really going behind the scenes in the second season and showing a world I would never even have considered traveling to before. My favorite comment so far from season 2 from Mongolia: "I don't even eat dark meat"