Television series

Around the World in 80 Days

Other titles called Around the World in 80 Days: the 1956 film, the 2004 film, the 2021 film.

A BBC-ZDF adaptation of Jules Verne's classic that treats the 80-day race around the world as genuine adventure rather than quaint heritage. David Tennant's Fogg is sharp and fallible, the globe feels vast and messy, and there's real jeopardy. Fast-paced, funny, with spectacle that justifies the streaming budget. For anyone who wants *The Amazing Race* with better writing and actual consequences.

TVMaze rating3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like a brisk, bickering travel caper where the fun lies in odd pairings and the wit of the set-piece, with a grounded streak underneath.

Skip it if you want the book's Victorian pomp and faithful period detail, since this reshapes the original freely and plays its gags loosely for a modern audience.

What it asks of you: Around eight episodes of roughly 48 minutes each, it moves at a breezy clip, asking for light attention rather than sustained concentration, and mostly keeps its mood sunny.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Amazing Race2001

The literal DNA of this story: competitive travel across continents, allies against the world, tight deadlines, and the unpredictable chaos of real transportation. Utterly gripping for two decades running.

But Reality TV rhythms and manufactured drama. The repetition of format can wear thin over a full season if you're after narrative depth.

The Amazing Race poster

Sherlock2010

Also BBC, also Tennant-adjacent smart entertainment. Fast dialogue, globe-trotting intrigue, and the pleasure of watching clever people solve impossible problems under pressure. Modern storytelling applied to classic material.

But The later seasons lose momentum, and the show's self-regard becomes its own obstacle. Some find the Sherlock-Watson dynamic exhausting on repeat.

Sherlock poster

Doctor Who2005

Tennant at his best as the Tenth Doctor—the same restless energy and moral urgency he brings to Fogg, but across time instead of space. Wildly inventive, funny, and genuinely moving. Endless travel, endless wonder.

But Uneven by design: TV on a budget, so episodes vary wildly in quality. You'll sit through forgettable ones to reach the brilliant ones.

Doctor Who poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Around the World in 80 Days

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Bonanza1959

Both are about patriarchal figures managing chaos across a landscape; both use episodic structure to prove competence under pressure; both hinge on loyalty within a makeshift unit.

Seems antithetical—a static ranch setting vs. the whole globe—but the same structure: a stable authority figure (Lorne Greene's Ben Cartwright) holding together a found family through crises, with each week a fresh moral and practical problem. Western instead of adventurer, but the engine is identical.

But 1960s TV pacing: slow by modern standards, and the moral lessons can feel heavy-handed. Also, a family drama rather than a travel show, so you're committing to different emotional stakes.

Bonanza poster
More like this (7)

The Grand Tour2016

Three people traveling across the world having adventures and arguing. Less tightly plotted than *Around the World*, but the camaraderie and genuine peril in exotic locations hit similar notes. Warmth beneath the chaos.

But A very expensive Top Gear, which means car-centric humour and a certain brand of laddish chaos. If that dynamic irritates you, nothing here will change your mind.

The Grand Tour poster

Kung Fu Hustle2004

Stephen Chow's madcap adventure across Shanghai and the surrounding world. Breakneck pacing, impossible stunts, constant joy in the spectacle. The same energy as *Around the World* but channelled into martial arts comedy.

But Cringe humour and physical comedy that relies on dated jokes. Feels very much of its era, for better and worse.

Kung Fu Hustle poster

The Expanse2015

Space instead of Earth, but identical DNA: ensemble crew with fraying loyalties, impossible deadlines, vast distances to cross, and genuine stakes. Spectacular, angry, and propulsive. Serious sci-fi that remembers to be fun.

But Unforgiving tone and increasingly bleak worldbuilding. Not a comfort watch. The first season is clunky before it finds its footing.

The Expanse poster

Unbroken2014

Angelina Jolie's account of an Olympian's survival journey across the Pacific. Real stakes, real suffering, cinematography that justifies the screen. Adventure as ordeal rather than lark.

But Heavy emotional lift and scenes of genuine brutality. Not entertainment in the *Around the World* sense—this is about endurance and trauma.

Unbroken poster

Around the World in 80 Days2004

Jackie Chan's previous adaptation, a globe-trotting action-comedy with genuine stunts and Chan's physical genius. Lighter than this version, cheerful and chaotic, with real filmmaking.

But Early 2000s action-film logic and some dated cultural representations. Less ambitious in scope and less interested in character than the 2021 series.

Around the World in 80 Days poster

Tokyo Story1953

The same journey structure—arrival, dislocation, the strangeness of being somewhere new—but inverted: not the exotic thrill of travel but the loneliness it exposes. Both ask what you learn when you move.

Ozu's masterpiece about an elderly couple traveling through Japan to see their son and grandson. No action, no spectacle, just the profound strangeness of movement and time and the gaps between people who love each other. Quiet and devastating.

But It moves at a glacial pace and the narrative is negligible. If you're watching for incident and excitement, this will test your patience severely.

Tokyo Story poster

Piranesi

Inverts the globe-trotting journey entirely: instead of crossing outward, the protagonist is trapped inward, discovering that every step repeats. Where *Around the World* is about progress, this is about the impossibility of it.

A surreal mystery across a vast, impossible architecture—a man in a labyrinth of staircases and halls, slowly discovering what his world actually is. Small cast, claustrophobic despite the scale, and genuinely unnerving. Adapted from Susanna Clarke's novel with hypnotic restraint.

But Deliberately cryptic and slow to unfold. If you need clarity and forward momentum, this will frustrate you. It asks you to sit with confusion.

Piranesi poster

People

Cast

Writing

Production

Recommended by

Better Late Than Never, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Treasure Hunters, The Famous Five, Joanna Lumley's Japan, The Kindness Diaries, Stacey Dooley's Australia: Off the Beaten Track