[Photo of Kembra Pfahler and Anthony Bourdain via Instagram]
As you might know, CNN is airing the series finale of "Parts Unknown" tonight at 9.
The episode, which arrives five months (and three days) after host Anthony Bourdain's death, is set in the East Village and Lower East Side ... and features Harley Flanagan, Lydia Lunch, Richard Hell, Fab Five Freddy, Amos Poe, Jim Jarmusch, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, and John Lurie, among many others.
Along the way, Bourdain, a former LES resident, visits old haunts including Ray’s Candy Store, Veselka, John’s of 12th Street, Max Fish (where they're screening the episode tonight) and Emilio’s Ballato.
Here's a mini trailer...
Some of the biggest names in music, film & art came out of one New York neighborhood. Tony returns to the Lower East Side on the final episode of #PartsUnknown, Sunday at 9p ET on @CNN pic.twitter.com/Ea7FHaOU62
— CNN Original Series (@CNNOriginals) November 8, 2018
And for more on what to expect, here's a preview via Eater:
In the episode, a recurring question Bourdain has for his interview subjects regards the romanticization of a time and a place that, in many ways, was dangerous and bad. Was it all really better then than it is now, with clean streets, Target stores, Whole Foods supermarkets, and fancy restaurants filling the blocks? For Flanagan, it was a “horror story,” but he misses it. Lydia Lunch, who fronted bands and starred in independent films, doesn’t look back with nostalgia and instead lives in the present: “I still have shit to do,” she tells Bourdain over a white-tablecloth meal.
And via Rosie Spinks at Quartzy:
Of course, like the prior episodes in this final season — which, with the exception of the season premiere in Kenya, are devoid of Bourdain’s narration, which he he had not finished at the time of his death — the episode feels haunted by its star’s absence. The voice that told you what was what, who was who, and why you should care is replaced by frenetically-styled transitions, and on-screen text introducing the next interviewee or luminary. The absence of Bourdain’s voice as an anchor feels like a loss throughout, and the disorientation it brings feels like delayed reaction to his death — a reminder that the world we live in is one that Bourdain chose to leave.
In a review of the episode, Verne Gay at the Chicago Tribune sums it up this way: "In one final whoosh, Bourdain is framed in an episode of pure, unadulterated post-punk joy."
Michael Steed, the director, told Eater: "People are going to feel a lot from this particular episode. I just hope people feel something."
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CNN has released several interviews with people featured in the episode, including Lunch (access here) and Lurie (access here).
And if you feel like a post-show egg cream and conversation ... then you can head over to Ray's Candy Store...
