About a week ago I’d mentioned the Vice Guide to North Korea, dropping daily on VBS.TV in 14 increments, each lasting three or four minutes.

After a shaky (though, later important) beginning with Episode 1 at the South Korean DMZ  the series is taking off and is as good as I’d hoped. Don’t mistake, this isn’t in-depth reporting from North Korea, but it never intends to be. This is an irreverent, gonzo-style goofoff in  Kim Jong-iland. Not always my favorite point-of-view, but this is North Korea, and we’ve flat-out never seen anything like this.

My favorite is Episode 5 — The Tea Girl. The North Korean countryside is dotted with traditional Korean tea houses — I’m not sure if they’d call this a 다방 (dabang) or not. The reporter, Shane Smith, spends an afternoon drinking tea and playing pool with a very cool (and quite lovely) hostess. Smith is kind of a dude. He’s very unassuming and has a big burly beard…the North Korean women giggle when he walks into the room. His contact with them is always awkward and misshapen. It’s priceless, both because it’s funny and because it reveals much about the nature of North Korea. It shows them as very human, a portrayal you’ll get here and there in documentaries (the work of Daniel Gordon comes to mind), but not in your every day reporting.

The episodes are padded with commentary by Smith and goofy NK propaganda reels, but you have to forgive Smith for the extras — this is North Korea, not exactly a point-and-shoot country. A lot of the footage is obviously done with hidden cameras and under duress.

This is great work. Everyone should watch it.