Jet Set Zero is an HD streaming video and video podcast adventure-travel series that follows a team of people as they travel the world with a restricted budget. In past and current seasons, the cast has lived in Ho Chi Minh City, Tokyo, Seoul, Istanbul, Quito, and Italy while traveling to other cities in their host countries. The cast tells their stories through a mixture of weekly episodes, short clips, blog posts, and photo albums. The main episodes, released weekly, tell the primary struggles of the cast as they journey through these countries. The shorter clips or mini-episodes highlight other aspects of their lives abroad. The photo albums and blog posts offer supplementary material.
Synopsis
Jet Set Zero is "a jet set life on zero dollars." The show aims to prove that the adventures of a jet set life are possible on any budget for anyone willing to take risks. In each country, the cast makes local friends and attempts to find full-time jobs to learn more about local living. The show films in each country for a maximum of 90 days. In June 2007, the cast started with only 3 months rent in the Northgate suburb of Seattle. They worked low-wage jobs, and after three months of living on a budget, saved enough to fly to Vietnam. Once there, they obtained jobs and worked for 3 months to afford plane tickets to Japan. They continued this process for 9 months, eventually traveling to Korea and Turkey before handing the show to a new cast, which once again started in Vietnam before going on to Ecuador. In 2010 the producers added a second international cast with a mission to travel Italy. Lisa Montfort of the Calgary Herald described it, "These guys don't aspire to be lavish high-flying tourists, and they live by a simple code: they must fund their trip through three months of work in the U.S. with jobs paying no more than $10 an hour; live like a local by experiencing a country through new friendships, local jobs and housing; and spend at least three months in one place — whether it's a success or a failure."
The crew's tapes were destroyed by authorities during the 2009 Seoul riots. Many episodes from the third season were never completed.
Season 4: Istanbul
The fourth season of Jet Set Zero was told through short clips and blog posts, in part because much of the show's equipment was damaged and/or confiscated by South Koreanriot police the previous season.
Jet Set Zero was featured in the March 2010 issue of National Geographic Traveler, as well as the magazine Groove Korea. Jet Set Zero was also cited in Lonely Planet's guidebook to Korea, as a resource for those wanting to know what it's like to live and work in Korea.
