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Avi Loeb Attacks Paper Calling 'Oumuamua Natural Ahead of New Book Release

3/24/2023

I felt a sense of relief this week when I discovered that Ancient Aliens wouldn’t be airing a new episode. On the other hand, it leaves me with little to write about. It’s been a very slow season for alternative history, the paranormal, and UFOs. I’m not sure why. I wonder if part of the reason is that most of the lower-tier TV series that used to drive the conversation have moved from cable to streaming, where they are locked behind paywalls and harder to see. (That may change when Discovery+ merges with HBO Max and I get bombed with them against my will.) Another factor may be the move away from traditional media outlets toward social media. Less material gets the full TV / book / magazine treatment and instead burns out quickly in a Reddit thread, a TikTok video, or a tweet storm. In my own little corner of the world, ever since Inner Traditions stopped sharing galleys for their upcoming titles, I’ve seen many fewer fringe books. But even Inner Traditions, the largest occult history publisher, has virtually stopped publishing fringe archaeology and has returned to its traditional specialty, New Age occultism.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S19E10 “The Giants of Malta”

3/17/2023

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The success of last fall’s Ancient Apocalypse on Netflix cast a shadow over Ancient Aliens, and it’s only natural that the History Channel dumpster fire would attempt to imitate its better-watched competitor. We’ve seen a couple of episodes this season that seem to be riffing on parts of Ancient Apocalypse, and this episode is the clearers copy yet, expanding Graham Hancock’s Apocalypse segment about the prehistory of Malta and its “giants” into an hour recycling Ancient Aliens’ previous explorations of the temples and mythology of the Mediterranean island.

If you’ve been watching the History Channel for any length of time, you’re already familiar with the topics discussed in this episode. The Ancient Aliens extended universe has recycled this content many times over the last decade and a half, particularly in the spinoff series In Search of Aliens, which devoted an entire episode to the supposed “giants” of Malta back in 2014 and then returned to it a second time before the end of its first and only season. Material from In Search of Aliens found its way into many Ancient Aliens episodes over the past decade, such as its “Giants of the Mediterranean” episode from 2020.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S19E09: “Aliens in Our Airspace”

3/10/2023

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The longer Ancient Aliens has been on the air, the less time they spend on “ancient” material. It’s been many years since the title accurately described the series, and at this point, the show is more or less a catch-all garbage dump for whatever UFO or paranormal material they can shovel into the void. This week’s episode revolves around supposed mysteries involving airplanes, ranging from pilots witnessing UFOs to the disappearance of whole planes. As you might notice, airplanes are not terribly ancient (the show’s claims about prehistoric flying contraptions notwithstanding), and I am growing increasingly tired of UFO stories. Forgive me, but I don’t have the energy to detail every UFO sighting in this week’s episode. Aerial paranormal paranoia is not my area of expertise, so this review may be more of a list than an analysis.

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Review of Ancient Aliens S19E08 “The Mysteries of Alasksa”

3/3/2023

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Maybe we aren’t supposed to remember Missing in Alaska, a History Channel series about paranormal happenings in Alaska from almost a decade ago. Or the episode of The Proof Is Out There from last year in which Ancient Aliens’ sister show looked at the so-called paranormal “Alaska Triangle.” Or maybe we were also supposed to forget The Alaska Triangle, a Travel Channel series from 2020. And we probably aren’t supposed to remember Aliens in Alaska, a 2021 Discovery+ series. Alaska’s paranormal UFO mysteries are growing a little stale after so many televised romps through their fraudulent fantasies, and everyone knows that overripe fake mysteries are exactly the sweet spot for Ancient Aliens, which consistently brings up the rear of the supernatural circus train. This episode, though, is more of a clown car, stuffed with made-up mysteries that aim to be amusing but come across as unpleasant.

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Avi Loeb Attacks Paper Calling 'Oumuamua Natural Ahead of New Book Release

Review of Ancient Aliens S19E10 “The Giants of Malta”

Review of Ancient Aliens S19E09: “Aliens in Our Airspace”

Review of Ancient Aliens S19E08 “The Mysteries of Alasksa”

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