Ancient Empires

I know not why Americans insist on this mania for just inserting talking heads into their documentaries. In the first few minutes of the first episode on Alexander we had a sequence of 5 talking heads each uttering sentence or half a sentence and then passing onto another talking head which just plain spoiled the whole show. The intro could could easily have been done by the narrator or even better, if you must, have the guest expert just talk his lines and bring up his name and use the time to show images of the land, maps, monuments or whatever-we just don't need to see these half baked "experts", a lot of the time giving social commentary.

So, the narrative is completely spoiled because you with each talking head you have a different presentation and set of mannerisms that should not be in play during a documentary. We should be watching the footage related to Alexander and the history not trying to interpret what each talking head is saying.

And if you think I am exaggerating, have a look at the list of "selfs" in the cast list on IMDB. There are over 40 - really???

To see how it's done the directors or producers look no further than Apollo 11. A monumental documentary told without a single talking head and it was an outstanding and one to best documentaries I have ever seen - you almost felt that you were reliving the moon landing.

Anyway, back to this awful thing - I gave up about 10 minutes in and have not been back to it. The review could have been "How to take a great subject and tear it to shreds..."