The Tourist (TV series)

The Tourist is a 2022 drama-thriller black comedy television series. It stars Jamie Dornan as the victim of a car crash who wakes up in a hospital in the Australian outback with amnesia. The series premiered on 1 January 2022 on BBC One in the UK, the next day on Stan in Australia, and on 3 March on HBO Max in the US. The second series, set in Ireland, premiered on 1 January 2024 in the UK and Australia, and on 29 February 2024 in the US.
The plot places the series in the thriller genre, but the dialogue and characters contain many elements of black comedy, and there is also a romantic sub-plot.
An Irishman wakes up with amnesia in an Australian hospital. Seeking answers, he encounters a local woman who remembers him and volunteers to help him rediscover his identity. What few clues he can find hint that he has a dark past from which he must escape before it catches up with him.
In February 2020, it was announced that BBC One and Stan would co-produce a limited mystery-thriller series written by Harry and Jack Williams, directed by Chris Sweeney, and produced by Two Brothers Pictures. HBO Max later joined as a distributor for the US market. In January 2021, Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Alex Dimitriades, and Hugo Weaving joined the cast of the series. Damon Herriman replaced Weaving a week before filming started.
Filming, which began in March 2021 in South Australia, took place in the regional towns of Port Augusta and Peterborough, and the Flinders Ranges, with some scenes being shot in Adelaide. The production crew recreated Bali's Kuta Beach on Adelaide's North Haven Beach. Principal photography was concluded in July 2021.
Filming for the second series started in April 2023 with Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald returning. Principal photography began in April 2023 in Dublin, Ireland. Diarmaid Murtagh, Conor MacNeill, Olwen Fouéré, Francis Magee, Mark McKenna, Réginal-Roland Kudiwu and Nessa Matthews joined the cast alongside Dornan, Macdonald and Larsen. Shooting took place in and around Dublin with some scenes being shot in Bray, Djouce and the Wicklow Mountains.
The series is distributed internationally by All3Media.
The first episode of the series premiered on 1 January 2022 on BBC One in the UK, and the following day in Australia on Stan. On 3 March 2022 it was released on HBO Max in the US and Latin America, as well as on Amazon Prime in Canada.
Later all six episodes were released on BBC iPlayer. With an overall view of 18 million on its release, the series became the third most successful drama launch for the iPlayer. As of March 2022, it became the most watched series on iPlayer. The first episode was watched 6,428,000 times on iPlayer alone during 2022, making it the 3rd most viewed individual programme on the platform that year.
ZDF released the series on 12 August in Germany.
In March 2022, the series was renewed for a second series, with filming having started in April 2023. Set in Ireland, the second series premiered on 1 January 2024 on BBC One in the UK and on Stan in Australia. In the US, the series moved to Netflix after being dropped by Max, and premiered on 29 February 2024.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported 97% approval based on 36 reviews with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Jamie Dornan makes for a compelling guide through The Tourist, a beguiling drama that deepens its mystery with solid shocks and welcome moments of levity." On Metacritic, the show has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 based on 11 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Critics particularly praised Dornan's and Macdonald's performances.
In a 4/5 stars review, Lucy Mangan wrote in The Guardian: "This outback thriller from the writer of The Missing is fun, stylish and clearly still has many twists up its sleeve." While Ed Cumming of The Independent addressed it as Dornan's best work until then, Lauren Morris in the Radio Times described it as "An unpredictable, edge-of-your-seat mystery that startles you with laugh-out-loud moments of ridiculousness." The Guardian ranked it number 24 on their list of best television shows of 2022. It also became the most-watched drama of 2022 in the UK.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 23 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.60/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Tourist continues to twist and turn towards an unguessable destination, with Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald's palpable performances making the journey wholly worthwhile along the way." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
In a 4/5 star review in the Evening Standard, Nick Clark praised the writing and said that the second series was "tense, brutal and often laugh-out-loud funny". Awarding it 4/5 stars, Anita Singh of The Daily Telegraph felt that it was funnier than the first series. Adam Sweeting writing for The Arts Desk, said: "Sometimes the Williamses lurch too far in the direction of gratuitous weirdness." He lauded Dornan's performance stating: "But a big hand for Jamie Dornan, who negotiates slings, arrows and blows to the head with good grace, wry humour and quiet authority." Barbara Ellen of The Observer rated it 3/5 stars and said: "the mystical layer that set the initial series apart is largely missing", but she still found it "strong".