I have honestly never heard of this show, and its on season 7!

How is this on 7 seasons and I've never even heard of it?

I’m fine with the show but he needs to stop that huge every smile after taking one bite of something

Not sure how it’s made it 7 seasons. I had to turn it off after like 20 minutes.

Can’t stand him. But I know lots of people who love him. To me he is just so off putting and uncomfortable in how he acts.

Cheap reality program renewed for seven seasons. Meanwhile interesting stuff gets canceled.

So it's like The Office?

He was a writer or creator of everybody loves Raymond.

It's a good background/diversion show if you're into the "guy goes all over the world and eats awesome food" shtick.

Phil himself is kind of annoying IMO, but it works for the show. He has this totally unabashed enthusiasm and joy for good food so the people who cook for him seem to really get a kick out of it.

Have you watched it?

Yea I find him annoying too. Really wish Bourdain was still around. RIP

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I think the fact that he is a bit unfomfortable how he acts bring a nerv to the show. He pushes people a bit.

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Yea. I totally understand how some people enjoy the show. Just personally I cringe in how he acts. To each their own though.

I wish it were more authentic. You don't learn anything about the regional culture or inspirations. IMHO, such a transparent plug for whoever kisses @ss best, whoever has the most persistent pr person, and or wherever Phil wants a free meal.

Because you're likely not its target audience.

Same, he’s obnoxious

There is a lot of criticism in this thread. I'll say it's a very pleasant show to watch with your significant other at the end of a long day. You feel like you're going on a nice little vacation with a super-positive person who just wants you to have a good time. Is it Bourdain? No, and I for one am happy it doesn't try to be. Let the man have this amazing chapter of his life and bring his family and us along for the ride. There isn't one episode where I feel he ever wasted my time.

This thread breaks my heart! I can't believe so many of you don't like Phil. For a talented multimillionaire, he seems pretty normal to me. Plus, he calls his parents every week, which is the sign of a good person in my book.

Agreed. I tried to watch the Vietnam ep and he starts off by saying he has to go to the one person he trusts on Viet food - another white dude.

He makes the show for me, I appreciate how genuine he is about everything. Yeah he's a little dorky but I think it's charming.

Right that's what I mean. He's a dude I think I would find extremely annoying in large doses in real life, but it works for his show.

I like the show a lot, have seen every episode and most of them multiple times. It's one of my go-tos when I'm in the gym.

Agree. Absolutely hate it when the “expert” isn’t a local but an ex-pat, and often white/privileged

If I had, would that change the fact that this is cheap reality programming? Or that better shows on Netflix have been canceled?

Maybe I should give it another try.

I'm not here to dump on the guy, but I did try watching it once years ago, and found him pretty annoying. And at the time I think I was not a fan of how it was structured? But I might be misremembering that.

In theory I'm the target audience. I like food shows. Competition, travel, documentary, instructional, comedy. But for whatever the reasons were, I dropped this one very quickly.

It lasting this long makes me think that maybe I missed something? Or maybe people are tuning in for different reasons than motivate me. If the draw is just "hanging out with friendly Phil", it may just not be made for me.

I'm not familiar with this show, so I can't speak to its quality (I tried to watch some of it several years ago and quickly moved on).

But that aside... Of course Netflix is going to renew a dozen shows with tiny budgets before they renew a single show with a huge budget. That's not a cynical take it's just reality. The higher your budget, the better you have to perform. In Netflix HQ they were not deciding between keeping "Somebody Feed Phil" and "1899".

"1899" cost over $60 million. "Somebody Feed Phil" is 90% Phil's salary and I doubt the guy worth hundreds of millions is asking for all that much to be paid to eat and travel. Not to mention it was a show he ran on PBS originally, then went to pitch to Netflix after it got canceled. I doubt he is asking for much more than a PBS-sized salary. He is basically retired and enjoys this.

How do you know what shows are "better" than something you've never seen?

That’s exactly how I would describe the show! I find him annoying but he’s so nice and that it’s hard to dislike him.

I watch it for the interesting foods and places. I want to travel to quite a few places I’ve seen on this show, and many are places that I’d never have had any interest in before.

If you’ve watched any food shows on Netflix then they likely would have been showing up on your recommendations. If you haven’t then they probably don’t think you’d be interested in it

I’d probably do it for free if it was me. Travel the world and way great food? Yes please!

This is the first I've heard of it. I'm assuming it's not about Bam Margera's dad?

I find him amusing but it's mostly because I know what he's doing isn't an act. He's legitimately that upbeat all the time so it's just see it as lighthearted

It’s not about better or worse, it’s about how many people are watching it. Cheaper shows will get renewed easier because they would need less views for Netflix to consider them as successful.

Phil is polarizing but I did find myself gradually warming up to him. Really it’s a light show with pretty scenery and bougie restaurants, with some truly heartwarming moments occasionally (like his love for his Down syndrome afflicted cousin). I’m shocked that Netflix hasn’t stopped making it - while it’s cheaper than many shows, this type of travelogue is only popular on E/I television in the US or travel channel reruns.

Anyone who's watched "Everybody Loves Raymond" has watched Phil before. He created the show and was a writer for it. It's loosely based on his family.

His Mom and Dad are often the funniest part of the show, sadly they've both passed. Yeah he's a little much sometimes, but if I ever ran into him, I'd love to talk with him.

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Phil can be a little much for some people. On one end of the spectrum is Phil, the other end is Larry David.

Unfortunately, both his parents have passed away, so he no longer call them. He calls celebrity friends at the end of each episode instead now.

I'd try the big goodbye. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b541nIfnjqk

celebrity friends who tell Jokes for Max (his dad)

I started watching it this year. It’s a fun little binge. He’s a warm hearted weirdo, easy to watch. I like a lot of the food he picks out, it’s food that makes a city famous and food the locals love. Plus a handful of mild celebrities pop up, plenty of chefs, as some history along the way.

He’s got some golden retriever energy and once you accept Phil is a bundle of positivity it makes it so much easier to view his quirks.

I didn't like it at first, but was too lazy to change it. Phil is just who he is, which is refreshing actually. That is Phil and believe me, they feed him.

In these troubled times, this show is a welcome ray of light. Just found Phil man kind of man, the way he treat everyone the way he wants to be treated is a lost art.

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Don’t Feed Phil was better

I don’t think anyone here dislikes him at all. It’s just that his energy isn’t for everyone.

While I appreciate positivity, I also don’t trust someone that likes everything. Nobody likes everyone they meet, everywhere they go, or everything they eat. So I find it hard to be interested in a show where he likes everything because I feel like I don’t learn anything.

That was really the genius of Bourdain. You felt like you were a little wiser or a little more experienced with the world because some stuff was awesome and some stuff sucked, and sometimes the people sucked, but there was always some beauty or redeeming quality to it.

Phil, to me, doesn’t have any of that depth, and it also isn’t particularly funny. It is wholesome and amusing and a good guy on a good show, but kind of milquetoast in the genre to a lot of people.

Once I got passedbthe quirky expressions he makes, I learned how to appreciate his warmth and style. Plus I live overseas and I miss genuine New Yorkers- reminds me of my old neighborhood in Ridgewood, Queens.

This guy made our restaurant so busy but he’s so cocking annoying I just don’t get it.

my indian parents kinda love this show. so I l can't hate on it

Totally agree. I have it on in the background while working on weekends. And I also don’t think I love Phil himself, but I’ve seen every episode

Such a great guy and show!

It might not be. For me the draw is definitely "nice guy goes around appreciating the world", plus I get to see beautiful food in 4k. Phil is a cozy show just as much as a travel/food show.

They’re not wrong.

There’s a lot of other shows we would all rather have.

Even the reasonable comments admit that it’s just a material filler show.

Can we not be so conceited?

Is it really that rage inducing that someone can call out a subpar show that somehow hasn’t been canceled?

Phil even hints multiple times that his brother has connections and that’s the only reason the show took off in the first place.

Otherwise it might never had been.

And Phil is a rich dude, the whole basis of the show is kind of out of touch with the times.

Dudes just traveling around blowing thousands of dollars so we can watch him eat food we will never be able to afford to travel and eat.

It’s just another form of wealth showcasing.

How many people do you know who could just go out and do what Phil does as a life hobby?

He’s retired and he’s not even senior yet.

It's the alternate universe version of Bourdain's shows where the host is wholesome

Is it a Netflix original? Season 7 must be a record for Netflix

Larry made fun of him on Curb and he played himself so you have to assume he's a good sport and self-aware lol

At first I didn’t really liked the show, I thought he was overacting. But as I continued I realized he’s just a human golden retriever and he is genuinely that happy and excited. Now it’s my favourite show.

This is the only thing my parents ever watch, over and over again. They “don’t have enough time” to watch dozens of shows I’ve recommended over the years but will kill every entire evening watching this.

Dunno man, I felt the Oaxaca episode was pretty meh. It just didn’t seem like he liked being there and they ate the same tacos made by different people like 3 times. That one was a yawner imho.

I liked the episode where he was going to have sushi with Larry David, but backed out because Larry was wearing a MAGA hat.

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I had to go on a crash diet last year to get my blood pressure down to a sane number, and I've been avoiding travel shows because they always have tons of food I would desperately prefer to salad. Have the recent episodes held up?

It’s not really subpar if people enjoy watching it, not everyone shares your opinion about what “we’d all rather have” and some of us like a casual warm show of a guy eating food.

It’s also probably cheap as hell to produce.

Dudes got a whole camera crew are you high?

If they are paying livable wages it should be in the ballpark of $200k budget.

At least…….

Equipment, lodging, plane tickets, passports, guides, FOOD…..? Oh yeah and wages?

Can we have Sense8 or Daredevil back?

Show is subpar, to say the least.

The Netflix way.

> Phil even hints multiple times that his brother has connections and that’s the only reason the show took off in the first place.

Phil was the executive producer/writer for Everybody Loves Raymond. He has his plenty of his own connections.

I mean, yeah, not saying you can make it with a couple bucks but still like probably 1/10th of the budget for a show like Sense8, which guess what, people didn’t watch and couldn’t justify its budget.

Yeah it's the kind of show I can't binge because Phil gets on my nerves on high doses, but it's perfect to watch an episode here or there because it's just a goofy guy having a blast eating food in different places.

It's one of those "comfort watch" kind of shows

Damn, ok.

Dammit Bam

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That's an insanely low budget even if it's per episode.

Love this guy. Went to quite a bit of places he went to in Chiang Mai, Thailand for Khao Soi and also his stops in New Orleans and Portland, OR

You know the travel/food documentary space is saturated when the creator of Everybody Loves Raymond has his own show.

Phil is great, I love his show, it encourages me to travel, but I definitely get upset that my travels don’t involve so many personal tours and meals.

I did until I tried some of these places and they were largely not good. So I feel deceived

This show has no budget, that's why

Uh.. so if you google, Sense8 cost $9 million per episode. So if you calculate the cost per view.. yea

Actually 2% the budget if $200k is the accurate number

Nice!

I know! It's a little sad that so many complaints boil down to "he's too nice." Like yeah, that's his vibe. It's a good thing for people to be nice!!