The H2 network announced that Ancient Aliens has been renewed for an eighth season, according to consulting producer Giorgio Tsoukalos, who tweeted the news yesterday. This means that we’re in for at least another year of repetitious and increasingly unhinged claims about time-traveling, psychic, interdimensional, supernatural “otherworldly beings” who are sometimes also “extraterrestrials.” Oh, joy!
47 Comments
Last night Scott Wolter turned his blog over to lunatic historian Alan Butler—the adjective referring accurately to his belief that our moon was made by time travelers who also founded the Freemasons. Butler uses the space to promote his 2006 book on the history of sheep, one which situates most of the credit for the creation of the modern world on British sheepherding. The blog post is rather dull and doesn’t make too many wild claims. Instead, Butler intimates that the Knights Templar used the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei) symbol to represent their sheep holdings. The Templars did in fact have many sheep across Europe and held licenses to export wool, a major cash source for the order.
One of the criticisms that comes my way at least once a week is why I bother reviewing cable TV shows. Some ask who is watching them, and others wonder who takes them seriously. Here’s another reason it’s so important to get high quality information about fringe history claims out where the public can find it: The public is apparently extremely interested in fringe history mysteries. According to Decider.com, 13 out of the 50 most popular streams on Netflix currently belong to The Truth Behind, a 13-episode NatGeo series from 2013 covering such fringe history hits as the Ark of the Covenant, crystal skulls, the Loch Ness Monster, UFOs, and more.
In the fall of 2013, UKTV’s Yesterday Channel aired the first series of Forbidden History in which Top of the Pops presenter Jamie Theakston attempted to uncover the truth behind various conspiracies and legends. He went in search of the Knights Templar’s treasure, the secret bloodline of Jesus, and ancient giants. It played like a rip-off of the first season of America Unearthed, which had aired from December 2012 to March 2013, though with slightly better production values and somewhat lower levels of crazy. UKTV commissioned the series in July 2013, just a few months after America Unearthed had proved itself to be a major ratings draw in the United States, then the most-watched series on the fledgling H2 channel.
No one mentioned the H2 series in discussing the Yesterday channel’s, but the parallels were striking, from the first-person perspective, to intimations of conspiracies, to sharing some of the same pundits. Forbidden History attracts 1.5 million UK viewers in a country of 64 million, compared to America Unearthed attracting 1.1 million in a country of 319 million. The show is one of the most successful history series for Yesterday. Apparently late last year some British scientists claimed to have discovered the first hard evidence of ancient astronauts, or rather their genetic experiments, and I’m surprised that it garnered so little media coverage. It certainly didn’t become as big a topic of discussion in the fringe history community as you might have expected from such a monumental discovery. Is this how proof of alien life emerges? With a shrug and a “so what”? Or is it just that the announcement occurred while Ancient Aliens was in a production hiatus?
Before we begin today, some good news: I’m mentioned in the Washington Post! And of course the writer gets a few details wrong. The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants to build a mosque in Cuba because he wrongly believes Columbus sighted one there in 1492. The Post article by Ishaan Tharoor, a former senior editor for Time, cites my blog in noting that the actual textual support for this claim, Bartolomé de Las Casas’s transcription-summary of Columbus’s journal, clearly states that Columbus saw a hill that looked “like a graceful mosque”—a metaphorical description. But Tharoor mistakes Las Casas’s work as Las Casas’s journal rather than Columbus’s, and he spells Las Casas’s name wrong.
Conservatives Rehabilitate the Crusades While Scott Wolter Says He's Not Sure What Happened on 9/112/12/2015 In the news this week has been the disturbing reaction of Christian conservatives, particularly Republican officials, to Pres. Obama’s reference to the Crusades as an example of religious violence. Because history is a weapon in today’s world, this episode in history, which left between one and three million people dead, has become a litmus test for how much one loves Jesus and identifies with a particular brand of conservative Christian culture against all others. Here’s conservative former Sen. Rick Santorum justifying the Crusades:
On Sunday the BBC hosted a debate on the ancient astronaut theory in which a panel questioned whether Jesus, Krishna, and the Buddha were space aliens. The Big Questions delivered 23 minutes of ancient astronaut speculation in the guise of probing the mysteries of religion. The Big Questions is a debate program that typically covers more serious subjects of moral, ethical, and religious concern. The preceding segments on the show were about counter-terrorism efforts in schools and how to improve democracy.
Those of you who regularly read my reviews of America Unearthed probably remember Will Yates, the scriptwriter and producer for the show who has from time to time shown up in the comments section of my reviews to take issue with my analysis of the show. Yates has put up new information on the British Talent Manager website in which he reveals that the History Channel has used his services for a new two-hour documentary on Nostradamus and his relevance to the twenty-first century. The program, entitled Nostradamus: 21st Century, is produced by Committee Films, the same company that produces America Unearthed.
Due to the snowstorm today and my normal heavy Monday workload, I unfortunately need to keep today’s blog post brief so I can head out to shovel again. As of noon today, the piles of shoveled snow reached just about six feet in front of my house due to a combination of heavy snowfall, wide sidewalks, and a very small yard. Then the plow came by and locked me in with a three foot high, foot-deep wall of snow across the driveway.
|
AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.
Categories
All
Terms & ConditionsPlease read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.
Archives
April 2024
|