Comedy Travel Show Hidden America Takes a Humorous Look at Boston

Travel shows are a dime a dozen these days, but comedian Jonah Ray hopes to turn the genre on its head with his new comedy series Hidden America.

The show, which recently debuted on NBC’s streaming service Seeso, is similar to other travel projects in that it allows Ray to explore cities across the country. However, instead of taking a serious look at these locations, the series features humorous hijinks and faux interviews with actors and comedians pretending to be locals.

As the host, Ray plays a fictionalized version of himself who’s attempting to follow in the footsteps of other television stars, like an Anthony Bourdain. Ray’s character wishes he was able to do a show like the Parts Unknown host, but ends up in ridiculous situations instead.

“He wants it to be as pretentious as possible,” Ray said. “He wants it to be a really serious thing, but every element is getting in the way of that.”

The first episode, which you can check out above, is set in Boston, a place that Ray believes has an “underdog complex.”

While the comic loves Boston and praises it for essentially being America’s first big city, he thinks people here have a chip on their shoulder and sometimes get aggressive, particularly when it comes to sports.

“You basically are like these really smart, awesome, intensely passionate people that feel underappreciated for how good you are,” Ray said. “It just comes out like aggressive posturing.”

Ray hoped to highlight these traits in a humorous way with the show’s debut episode, which is why fans can expect to see funny takes on Boston’s colonial past, hilarious segments with rowdy sports fans, and more.

“Being a Bostonian is a very specific thing,” Ray said. “What’s great about it is that it has no qualms with what it is.”

The entire first season of ‘Hidden America’ is available now on Seeso.