The Office fans, assemble! It’s not that we had time to miss three-time Emmy nominee Rainn Wilson lately – our eternal Dwight Schrute has starred in several projects that include TV series Mom and Utopia, as well as the upcoming Weird: The Al Yankovic Story biopic. But if you like just plain old Rainn as himself, you’ll be happy to know that the actor is set to host a docuseries for Peacock: Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss is a travel series that will have its titular host searching for secrets of some of Earth’s most notable places.
Across the series’ six episodes, Wilson will get a first-person perspective of why some places are considered the happiest and unhappiest in the world. The actor and host will use his distinct humor to talk about the places he visits and how happy the inhabitants are in them — they include, Ghana, Iceland, United Arab Emirates, and Japan.
In an official statement, Wilson celebrated the project coming to life and made some promises regarding the series:
“Are you kidding me? This is the job of a lifetime: traveling around the world for Peacock, seeking to uncover the secret to happiness in these perilous times. I’ll let you know what I find out!”
Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss is also set to be a deeply personal journey for the star, who will be blunt when talking about his own mental health, and be open to the transformation that the places he visits might cause him. So prepare to laugh, but also have a tissue box at the ready just in case.
Rod Aissa, EVP of Unscripted Content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, stated that Wilson as host is an excellent choice, and revealed that the series will go deeper than only showing images and random interviews with different people:
“Rainn Wilson, is the perfect guide to take audiences on a unique journey around the world uncovering the secret ingredients that make for a happy or unhappy population. With an entertaining and irreverent tone, ‘Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss’ uncovers how the universal pillars of community, spirituality, family, and wealth all intersect to serve up varying degrees of happiness across our planet.”
Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss is based on Eric Weiner’s New York Times best-selling book The Geography of Bliss: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World. Both the book and the series are supported by the expanding studies related to “the science of happiness”, a much-needed soul-searching investigation that is rapidly concluding that humanity is focusing on the wrong things in order to find happiness.
Peacock is yet to reveal a release date for Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss.
You can check out the official synopsis here:
Our host and intrepid traveler Rainn Wilson will traverse the globe searching for the secrets to the happiest societies on earth. Based on the book, “The Geography of Bliss”, Rainn will explore some of the happiest and least happiest places on earth from Iceland to Qatar to Ghana, and in a profound, humorous, and experiential way will unpack the science of happiness.
via Collider