Is tonights celebrity edition of Locked Up Abroad (10 p.m. on National Geographic) a cautionary tale? Or a comedy? Its hard to turn a series all but based on Midnight Express into a sitcom. But its not impossible.
Is tonights celebrity edition of Locked Up Abroad (10 p.m. on National Geographic) a cautionary tale? Or a comedy? Its hard to turn a series all but based on Midnight Express into a sitcom. But its not impossible.
Tonights tale is narrated and re-enacted by its subject, actor Erik Aude, best known for his supporting role in Dude, Wheres My Car?
This Locked Up arrives at a grim Pakistani prison, where Aude is beaten and brutalized. His path to prison is like something out of a stoner comedy called Dude, Wheres My Common Sense?
According to Aude, he was on the brink of post-Dude stardom when an acquaintance asked him to fly to Pakistan on his behalf and bring back some leather goods. Sure, dude, why not? What could go wrong?
Audes gullibility would be off the charts at any given time, but his friend asked him to fly to Pakistan in the teeth of post-9/11 tensions. American forces had just invaded Afghanistan, and extremists had recently executed journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Any tourist with half a brain would avoid the region. But Aude didnt seem to have that problem.
Armed with a blind ignorance and gung-ho spirit befitting a slapstick comedy fall guy, Aude also goes jogging in the heart of a Pakistani city teeming with anti-American hatred. And then he proceeds to hit on veiled women, because, he explains, he could still see their eyes. And they were hot!
After this absurd setup, the rest of Locked Up is a bit of an anticlimax. After police inform Aude that he is carrying opium and not leather goods, we settle down to the usual grim tale of arrest, incarceration, torture and painful extraction that allows him to live to relate his incredible and completely avoidable tale of misfortune.
Huh, I haven't watched that one yet. I just finished the season premiere of Better Call Saul, so I may check this out next.