Zero Stars review: Sara Pascoe and Roisin Conaty find comedy in tourist traps
Zero Stars puts Sara Pascoe and Roisin Conaty at the center of a travel show built around the worst-reviewed places and the most awkward experiences. The eight-part series begins this weekend and sends the pair across the globe in search of zero star-rated places, from bad food to overpriced attractions. Zero Stars is less about glamour than survival, and that is exactly the point.
Zero Stars turns the travel format inside out
The premise is clear from the start: instead of luxury, the show goes looking for places people actively complain about. That means grumpy instructors, dodgy food, and tourist traps that promise more than they deliver. Zero Stars treats the travel genre as a target in itself, and it does so with a blunt sense of purpose.
Pascoe and Conaty describe themselves as comedians and best friends, and the format depends on that chemistry. The pair keep the focus on themselves rather than on mocking local people, which helps the show avoid the easiest and most tired jokes. Zero Stars works best when it lets them react honestly to the mess around them.
Inside the first trip on Zero Stars
The first episode takes the pair to Istanbul, where the trip quickly becomes less about sightseeing and more about staying afloat. A water bike excursion turns into a scramble to avoid a procession of boats, while a fortune teller who spends much of her time on the phone becomes another source of comic tension. In another scene, the hosts end up in a five-star hotel that turns out to be a feeder hotel for hair-transplant patients, with the lobby full of men in bandages.
That sequence captures the show’s odd balance. Zero Stars is looking for disaster, but it also keeps finding places that are not quite as bad as the premise suggests. The result is a series that thrives on the gap between expectation and reality, even when the reality is only mildly chaotic.
What the hosts say about the trip
Sara Pascoe said the show arrived after the idea of sending comedians on luxury trips had already run its course. She said the team had also considered Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss at an earlier stage, which would have made for a very different programme. Pascoe added that one surprise was golf, which she had always dismissed as boring and silly until she tried it herself.
Roisin Conaty said her reaction to the offer was immediate, describing it as an exciting couple of sentences before learning the concept was built around zero star-rated places. She said filming felt like a real mixture of emotions. Conaty also said she was struck by how often places made their own yoghurt, adding that she ate so much of it she ended up looking like Santa Claus.
Zero Stars and the limits of the joke
The series is at its strongest when it keeps its targets broad and its tone self-aware. There is a clear tension built into Zero Stars: it wants to show awful tourist experiences, but it also has to find enough material that is genuinely bad without simply becoming cruel. That balance is hard, and the early episodes suggest the show knows it.
At the same time, Zero Stars feels like a neat fit for Pascoe and Conaty because it gives them room to spar, improvise, and laugh at the awkwardness of travel itself. The format may be built on bad reviews, but its appeal depends on the hosts making the whole thing feel alive. Zero Stars has enough of that energy to keep viewers watching for what goes wrong next.
What happens next for Zero Stars
With eight episodes lined up and the launch set for this weekend, Zero Stars now has to prove it can keep the idea fresh beyond the first stop. The travel show is built on the promise of bad experiences, but its real test will be whether Pascoe and Conaty can keep turning disappointment into something funny. If they can, Zero Stars could become more than a one-note joke and turn into a smart, sharply observed travel series.
