Siguiendo a Conan O'Brien

Conan O'Brien once described the gasoline for his comedic engine as the relentless pursuit of the strange phantom intersection between smart and stupid. In this new series, Conan puts HBO Max's money, or is it just Max now? Who the heck knows? Point is Conan puts someone's money to good use while bringing us a hearty dose of bottled throttled mad genius. As the great philosopher William Q. Wonka once opined, "Conan is the music maker. Conan is the dreamer of dreams."

As a long time O'Brien-o-phile (podcast host, late night host, and . . . Well . . . I guess that's about it) and fellow inbred melanin deficient Irishman, it's no surprise that I loved Conan O'Brien Must Go. Even if you're not, and even if somehow you've been living in a cave and have never heard of Conan, watch the show. His brilliant stupidity and stupid brilliance will win you over. And who knows? Maybe your next houseguest (cave guest?) will be the Red Tornado himself.

One gripe: There was talk of gerbils, but I didn't see any. What gives?

He can pretty much do no wrong with us and we were so excited to watch his new show - another gem by Conan! Very entertaining to see him in Norway. It's a nice way to see the culture with his usual brand of humor. Several times we laughed out loud. So nice to see him out of the studio and exploring with his funny observations. Love him in his podcasts but his remotes have always been our favorite. What a nice way to tie in meeting his fans with a new show! Very nice views of Norway, the fjords are beautiful!

He's hilarious per usual as he takes us on his travels. We love it! Please continue making these.

I really enjoyed Conan Without Borders and watched some of them multiple times.

This time in a lot of bits it just doesn't work for me (but not all of them). Conan just doesn't vibe with some of his fans and other people, while usually he makes either them or us laugh in such situation this time interaction feels kinda forced. Sometimes he interrupts people or makes them feel visibly uncomfortable to push some joke which doesn't seem really worth it to me.

As far as travelling goes, there was barely anything new to learn about each country, I think Conan could find more less obviously tourist places, things closer to common folks, like he used to.

There's only one hillarious episode, and you know which one (or who is in it).

As others have mentioned, some portions felt like they went on too long. Were they trying to pad the episode to meet the length requirement? Or was it a conscious decision in order to make things seem awkward? Well, either way, it didn't always quite come out right in my opinion.

Beyond that, no argument from me that some stuff was funny and seeing various locations and meeting people is interesting. You can tell some of the fans didn't work out so well as their screen time was cut drastically. Which I suppose is bound to happen.

In some portions the only plan seems to be to try to offend people or be outlandish, but Conan is a seasoned comedian and shouldn't have to always do that in order to make humor. So that seemed like the biggest negative. But comedy is subjective and can be difficult, so it's also understandable.

I'm just gonna cut to the chase here without any detailed spoilers. Overall I think it's a bit of a 'cheap' concept for a travel show. A lot of scenes felt wayyyy too long, others too short. When someone has an interesting story, Conan tries too hard to make a joke. You're traveling to interesting places, Conan! Let us hear people's stories also! You did so magnificently in the past, and knew when to joke/not joke. He's overstepping his shtick here sometimes (in my opinion), and that's a shame.

I'm still giving it a 7, because when it wasn't so forced, it was absolutely HILARIOUS. The imagery was also breathtaking.

Enjoy it for what it is, but don't expect a masterpiece. Maybe season 2 will be better! I really hope so.