Freethinking for Dummies

How To Ruin A Good Documentry

I just finished watching the documentary, “Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest.”   It tied the four Indiana Jones movies to real archeology.  For the first 3/4 of the show, it was a really interesting, fact based, documentary.  

The last 1/4 though, got away from facts and into the ideas that extraterrestrials gave mankind 16 crystal skulls that were spread across the world and would all be found when humans were at a world-wide crisis.  

There was no countering that idea with facts or science.  Only anecdotal evidence of supposed experts in UFO’s.  It was presented as, if not fact, at least very plausible.  Of course, every one of these types of claims have been shown to have no evidence at all, and the things they try to explain have been shown to be completely terrestrial. 

I love documentaries, but in the past 10 years or so, documentaries have become entertainment, with sensationalism being the driving source instead of facts and evidence.  If any of the producers of these types of documentaries believe that they must put this tripe into their shows because otherwise people won’t watch documentaries, they should take a look at the works of Ken Burns, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, or David Attenborough.

I honestly believe that most of us are smarter than the TV network executives give us credit for.  I find it sad, and a bit frightening, that even our supposed science shows are dumbed down.  What kind of society will be be in another generation if this is now the norm?

September 23, 2012 - Posted by James Walker | Science, Skepticism | documentry, Science, tv