Down to Earth premiered in July 2020 on Netflix. It has 8 episodes in a season and covers sustainable living and issues in our ever-changing world.

Down To Earth is Netflix’s new homage to Mother Earth. Actor Zac Efron and “wellness expert” Darin Olien traveled to eight countries to show how other people in our world live and try to preserve our earth. 

The pair travel to England, Iceland, France, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Peru, and Sardinia. They observe “new solutions to very old problems” to try and encourage viewers to see different parts of life. 

Efron and Olien show different ways that Down To Earth can educate us.

An Overview of the Episodes

In Iceland, we get to see a powerplant that’s run solely on geothermal energy. It keeps the country running with very little fossil fuel energy. We also learn that Efron’s father works at a nuclear power plant, which releases a lot of CO2 emissions, and sparked his curiosity. They also showcase a “fire and ice” style dinner and how Icelandic chocolate company Omnom makes their delicacy. 

In Costa Rica, they teach about a communities that live off the land completely. However, there was a touristy-feel to this episode. They also show schools that do not use homework. The style of learning these schools use is unfamiliar to most.

In the France episode, they taught about what water is best for us and what isn’t! Spoiler alert: purified/distilled water is actually not the best for you. It lacks minerals that we actually need in our bodies every day.

Thoughts on the Show as a Whole

Zac Efron is undoubtedly candid in this show, not holding back his thoughts or ideas on the way the world (particularly the U.S.) runs things. He also is very honest about his subpar candy bar he made. He also mentions the fact that he never really thought that he would get as famous as he did — and how he doesn’t really love it.

The pairing of Efron and Olien was really well through out.  But, they seemed more like they may have been friends in a college frat than an actor and a “wellness expert.” The two seem like they’ve known each other for years and it’s sort of touching to see them both doing this on a topic they are so interested in.