Antiques Roadshow

In all the episodes, I never saw any real action or drama or comedy.

The plot is so repetitive.

****Somebody gets something old and then somebody else tells them a little bit about it and how much it's worth and who made it and where it comes from and how much it could sell for and if there was any work done to it.

Sowhile I watched about 30 of these, i realized...there is no drama....nobody ever loses a limb or life or gets divorced or hit by a car or air-plane.

There are no car chases or explosions- not even a horse race with old carriages.

All those guns and swords and nobody goes on a violent killing spree...what gives? No pshycos, no axe-murders, no-gun-totting old Englishmen in bad suits...just yap yap yap...you have an old tea set and it came from the country of Germany back in 1602 - blah blah blah...

I'm still waiting for somebody with a time machine to go on screen and ask about it, but no...it never comes to be and the only thing that happens is that some stuffy Englishman or woman serves up some crap about something old being sold in Boston or China during the Ming Dynasty - big EFFIN deal.

Can't anybody ever kidnap one of the leads and hold them for ransom? Is there no alien spacecraft that will obliterate the entire floor? Who the hell writes this stuff as a series and expects us to stay awake? This is about as entertaining as watching paint dry - only with commentary.

There's no sex, there's no comedy or romance, no action, no suspense, no action, no drama, no mystery or martial arts.

This show sucks! What ever happened to supermodels wearing thongs and spewing lasers from a futuristic weapon? Antiques Roadshow - More like grab a blanket and pillow and go to sleep show...

Don't waste your time unless you are sure you have something very valuable, and then don't be so sure. We brought antiques to be appraised and felt snookered into waiting much longer than we were led to believe we would have to wait. You are given a time to enter and are led to a very long line. That line took about 2 hours. Toward the end of the line I asked how much longer we'd have to wait and was told "five minutes." Thinking we had finally got to where we would have our objects appraised, we were led to another two-hour line. If you wanted two items of different types appraised, you had to join yet another two-hour line for the second item. At the end of our 4-hour wait, we were told that our object was worth very little. We learned that an object may be 100 years old, but if it wasn't worth much to begin with, it still isn't. I could have taken it in to an appraiser, paid a little money, and found that out without the four-hour wait, not to mention the time spent to get to and from the venue where the event was held. Most people had their objects packed so you see very little of what other people are bringing, so there really is not much fun in it. Save yourself the trouble.

I love the American version of "Antiques Roadshow" that is shown on PBS. It's very, very interesting and even my daughter loved it when she was a tiny kid. Why? Because the stories are so interesting and the appraisals so enlightening. Think about it--folks bring in their knickknacks and treasures to discover if they are actually worth something--and that's most of what the show is all about other than a visit in each episode to a museum or collection for a short interlude in the middle of the show.

Although the British first came up with "Antiques Roadshow", I find that I prefer the American one (though I watch both). That's because, for me, much of the excitement of the show is watching the reactions on the public when they get their appraisals--and the British reactions are, in general, much more muted.

Roadshow, while it does nothing to compensate the original artisans who created these works (they presumably were compensated at original manufacture?), does help the rest of us who might discover a potential windfall in our attic. The show's long run has actually HURT the rich antique collectors in the sense that hundreds of thousands of everyday people now know what these pieces are worth, and they are not as easily duped by the proliferation of unscrupulous dealers.

To say that we should completely forsake collectibles in favor of buying new goods is to say that we should never place a premium on quality and craftsmanship, for that is the common thread. We should be happy with a few new music discs or movies, rather than have a large collection of great and classic material purchased used.

There is room for both, and this is another example of where we need balance in our lives. Besides, it is great entertainment!

The fun bits of this show that gives you a free appraisal of that thingamajig that you got out of Aunt Mabel's attic is when 1) it turns out to be very rare and/or valuable, 2) when it has an interesting history even when the monetary worth is minimal, or 3) it is a complete fake and the viewer learns, "Buyer Beware!", and the owner is (we hope for his sake) thankful that he only paid a few dollars at a flea market for it.

The appraisers always seem very happy when they are able to deliver good news to the person and quite consoling when the occasional fraud turns up.