THREE SHEETS: Season Two

This is the type of show that makes me want to drink... which is the whole idea!

I know many, many people who watch the Food Network for hours and hours of what I call "food porn". I can handle snippets here and there, but I have to admit I'm not much of a foodie. However, I do enjoy drinking, and, shall we say, the art of drinking. MOJO HD, a cable network "created exclusively for the discerning upscale male" (apparently only men like to drink... whatever) has a show called Three Sheets where our amiable host Zane Lamprey travels around the world sampling local beverages (usually alcoholic) and mastering local drinking customs.

In the second season (available on a two-disc DVD set), the following locales each get their own 25-minute episode: Croatia, Czech Republic, Japan, Philippines, Venice, Taipei, Munich, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and Kentucky.

I got to sample the Japanese episode, which, I admit, was very entertaining. Zane is a fun host, without being rude to the locals (and he learns quickly that in Japan he can easily make a misstep of etiquette). The focus is sake, and as he learns about the different styles and qualities, the audience learns as well. After successfully learning to discern between poor quality and the best quality, Zane then buddies up with a classic Japanese bigwig, the owner of a sake brewery that first subjects him to an evening of much drinking and eating before (seemingly begrudgingly) allowing him to tour his generations-old sake brewing company. Luckily, Zane seems to have the personality where folks can forgive his goofiness, but he never does anything downright stupid to get himself booted out of a situation.

There is something vaguely juvenile (aka teenage boy-ish) about the Three Sheets series, like when they have educational films with goofy narration, but, well, I suppose the audience is discerning upscale males, so who am I to judge. Kudos to the producers for showing a maps of, say, Kyoto where our host travels from establishment to establishment... on a bike or on foot. This is the type of show that makes me want to drink. Maybe next time the Food Network is on, I'll discreetly go to another room and watch Three Sheets instead. Is there such a think as "drinking porn"? I'd say now there is!