Sue Perkins’ Big American Road Trip, Channel 4, review: More Instagram grid than off-the-grid

Sue Perkins has already explored Japan and the US-Mexico border for the BBC: now she moves to Channel 4 for her Big American Road Trip, a Nomadland-inspired look at life on the open road.

The first episode saw her hop into the driving seat of a neat, little (fully-stocked) rental van to take in the Pacific Coast Highway, the Sierra Nevada mountains, Yosemite National Park and the Californian desert.

Although the scenery was breathtaking, it quickly became apparent that gorgeous vistas were not the point. Instead, this show was interested in the more than one million people who have chosen to live nomadically in the States, and whether the lifestyle was as romantic as it sounds.

Specifically, Perkins was concerned with #VanLife, the social media movement that sees its own intrepid breed of influencers sharing their experiences online.

And thus Perkins, apparently newly on Instagram, set about sarcastically photographing her breakfast, bringing along with her for the ride her trademark wit and a preoccupation with bodily functions (though given the lavatory arrangements, this was probably understandable).

The Insta-shtick got tired quickly, but it is evidently true that this lifestyle, despite purporting to be “off-grid”, actually involves an awful lot of posting to the grid. Perkins visited both Blix and Bess, a beautiful YouTubing couple, representative of a younger, more diverse RV community, and veteran Bob Wells, who also cultivates a huge YouTube following (and actually appeared in Nomadland).

Glossy hashtags aside, many of these people spend years or even decades on the road and Perkins’ gimmicky stopovers – here she attempted both burlesque and belly dancing – felt too fleeting to really get to grips with any of the deeper reasons why.

There is much to unpack about the financial, societal and political motivations for living like this: I hope next week’s Colorado instalment might skip the forced fun shed some proper light.

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