Secrets in the Sand

The subject matter of the documentary is extremely interesting and educational and the historians, like Dr Anthony Cantor, who provide invaluable details about the archeological findings featured in each episode, are fascinating to listen to. Sadly however, the introduction to every episode and the narrative between the historians presentations is ruined by the awful, awful narration! Why does EVERYTHING he says has to be SOOO melodramatic!!! It's incredibly irritating to say the least and distracts the viewer from the content of the programme. Surely the producers know by now how bad it is - why haven't they addressed it? It would be good to know how many people have abandoned the series solely due to what is probably the poorest narration of any documentary ever.

This is a history show as described in the title. Each episode has about four stories. It is a mishmash of histories around the world. My best description is that this is a clip show of other history shows or CliffsNotes of history. It can be a bit rushed and the constant rotation of talking heads can be discombobulating.

So the sites are interesting, some prehistory, some biological mysteries and global archaeology. The folk who wrote the script and directed the talking heads, however, need some self reflection and serious help to produce something that isn't super irritating. The script is repetitive and its being read in a tacky movie trailer type way by the horrendous narrator and in an exceedinly unconvincing fashion by the (majority of) talking heads - several of whom are really reputable academics (others.... not so much, ya know the History Channel = Hitler type usual suspects) who frankly should've stepped away once they were asked to read stuff that a) isn't particularly educational b) is barely informative at times c) is outside their expertise.

Done two episodes, and love me some archaeology (even pretty cheesy stuff) but its like nails down a chalk board... look obvs not as bad as the weird revisionist ancient alien BS, but just exceedingly irritating so dunno if I'll be able to watch any more eps.