I finally sat down and watched the first three episodes of the History Channel's brand new show Surviving History. In the past couple months, I have been disappointed in the History Channel by the lack of real "history" shows in prime time, shows like Ax Men, Tougher in Alaska, and MonsterQuest. This new show impressed me and I'm anxious to see more!
On Surviving History, craftsmen from the Scarefactory in Columbus, Ohio recreate and test history's most amazing inventions and devices. In these first episodes, the team built devices such as the Halifax Gibbet, a predecessor of the Guillotine, the Cat o' Nine Tails, and the Pillory. The worse one so far for me was the Brazen Bull, a truly gruesome execution device. Learning the history of these instruments of torture and watching the team members actually test them out on themselves fascinated and horrified me at the same time.
Overall, I am glad to see a new show on the History Channel that has to do with actual history, even more so with specific inventions and technologies of times past. Although this new show has the feel of a reality show at times, it has a lot of potential. I am looking forward to seeing more of the team member's interactions with each other and what other contraptions they will recreate on the show.
Links to Learn More
Monday, June 30, 2008
Surviving the History Channel
18 Comments:
I love getting feedback on my posts and I appreciate your thoughts, opinions and questions. However, any comments that are of a perverse nature or include obscene language will not be published. Any comments that contain links to another site will be deleted unless it adds to the discussion. Please read the full Comments Policy before posting. Thanks for visiting!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I have been saying the same thing! It's getting hard to find history on the History channel. My aunt just got the new Smithsonian channel and its great. I will try to get it in Korea
ReplyDeleteThis new show has given me a little more hope for the History Channel! Smithsonian channel? Never heard of that before, I'm curious now! :)
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean, I used to love the history channel, but then they started airing shows that were really disappointing and not history related. But I have watched surviving history and it was really good. I was surprised. And I never heard about the smithsonian channel either, I'd love to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed Surviving History, although it's a little concerning that they test out the inventions on themselves! But it's probably the best part of the show though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up. Surviving History sounds worth watching.
ReplyDelete(Also, thanks for putting me closer to quota on one of my blogs: I did a micro-review of this post that'll appear tomorrow.)
The show is definitely worth checking out! Thanks for the review!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to check these out, because I know exactly what you mean about their programming. Not sure why they call themselves "history" channel when they have so few shows about history.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean! But it seems as if the more "history" shows are on during the day but not in prime time. I'm so grateful that Surviving History is on now!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking the same thing about the History Channel, but I have to say that I am addicted to Ice Road Truckers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's not promising that most of my favorite shows were produced by the channel a decade or more ago.
See, I can just never get into Ice Road Truckers! But I know what you mean. I often wonder how old the shows are that I watch on the History Channel.
ReplyDeletewell i saw hitler's series on history channel and it was pretty good.
ReplyDeleteWhich series was that?
ReplyDeleteThere are still some good series on the History Channel!
I enjoy "Cities of the Underworld" and "The Naked Archeologist".
ReplyDeleteI like "Cities of the Underworld" too! But I've never heard of "The Naked Archeologist." Is that a new show? What a name! :)
ReplyDeletecouldn't agree with you more. Surviving History is good. Much better than the typical "ALiens landed at Roswell" stuff that the history channel is passing off as "history" these days.
ReplyDeleteMonsters? Aliens? UFOs? Huantings? ALl interesting, but aren't there other channels for that?
As an interesting aside, I ran into R. Lee Ermey at LAX (the guy from Mail Call and Full Metal Jacket) and he bemoaned the same thing. Said it was a "shame" what happened to that channel.
Interestingly enough, if you get the international history channel - it's the absolute bee's knees. I've seen great shows on Agincourt, Crecy, Gallipoli, etc. Hard to imagine why the U.S. version has become a tabloid extravaganza?
I know exactly what you mean! I've been fed up with the History Channel for a while now. It seems like every new show in prime time has nothing to do with history. I'm actually formulating a new post about that and hopefully, it will be finished soon!
ReplyDeleteThey should just change the channel to the UFO channel!
ReplyDeleteI used to love the history channel. However, now they mostly just show marathons of shows about UFOs, reality shows, Cryptozoology, or at best modern marvels(which mostly sucks)!
What ever happened to the shows about HISTORY??
The discovery channel sucks for the same reason!
Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! It seems like every new show the History Channel comes out with had absolutely nothing to do with history.
It's frustrating but it makes me wonder if they do that because people are actually watching these shows! Maybe there's not enough people who want to watch real history shows.
Rebecca