‘Pole to Pole with Will Smith’ Review: National Geographic Meets Celebrity Therapy

Series like Pole to Pole sit uncomfortably between two modes of documentary filmmaking: the celebrity travelogue and something that could be described, somewhat loosely, as environmental advocacy. Some time after his public fall from grace following the Oscars incident—and with only a limited return to fiction since then, beyond a Bad Boys sequel and little else—Will Smith embarks on a hundred-day journey around the world that functions, or is meant to function, on three levels. First, as a process of personal reckoning, a kind of public therapy framed as a quasi-religious pilgrimage. Second, as an attempt to reintroduce a warmer, more affable public image, far removed from what was seen on that infamous night. And finally, under the more ostensibly noble banner of drawing attention to the planet’s increasingly critical state.

In practice, Pole to Pole seems far more invested in the first two objectives. Smith’s travels through the poles, the Amazon, and the Himalayas—among other remote corners of the globe—often feel driven by personal necessity rather than curiosity alone, as if the series were inviting viewers to accompany him on a journey of atonement and self-rediscovery, with the wonders of the Earth serving as both backdrop and catalyst. Produced for National Geographic, the show relies heavily on Smith’s star charisma to fuse personal therapy with a more universal quest: exploring regions of the world that remain largely uncharted, yet are crucial to sustaining life at a time of escalating climate crisis.

At its core, each episode places Smith in a different environment, approaching it with a mix of awe, uncertainty, and genuine fear. The opening episode, set in Antarctica, introduces him to the region’s harsh realities and to the people who have built their lives around it, including a team of Brazilian scientists and a Welsh explorer. Later, the series moves to the Amazon in a two-part arc: one episode focused on tracking animals whose venom may hold the key to curing diseases—an endeavor that has Smith climbing towering trees and venturing deep into caves—and another centered on the search for a giant anaconda alongside the Waorani tribe in Ecuadorian Amazonia.

The therapeutic angle becomes much more explicit and direct in the Himalayas, where Smith retreats into remote temples and, in the company of Buddhist monks, searches some elusive formula for happiness, confronting the most fragile and unresolved moments of his own life along the way. In other episodes, not made available for this review, he travels to the North Pole, the Kalahari Desert, and a remote island in the South Pacific.

Spectacular imagery, eccentric characters worthy of a Werner Herzog documentary, and an emphasis on environmental preservation ultimately serve a broader personal and professional recalibration. Pole to Pole is less about discovery than about repositioning: an effort by Smith to reconnect with an audience he once took for granted by speaking to them more directly than fiction currently allows. Though presented as a documentary series, its rigid structure reveals a tightly scripted project built around a clear guiding idea—using the planet and its mysteries as a means of confronting fear and reclaiming lost intimacy with viewers. It is, without question, a dignified and often entertaining way to do so, even if it remains, at heart, an elegant exercise in image management.