Ancient Aliensssss

Ancient Aliens

This show is a mess. Just kidding.  Well, kind of.

Ancient Aliens is a show that showcases different locations, interviews, evidence, and people who all try to explain or help prove that aliens are behind many of mankind's successes and strange happenings in ancient and modern history from the Incas and Mayans and Egyptians (and even older) to Roswell and recent home videos of UFOs.  It's pretty well-known for the memes generated from it focusing on that one guy with the crazy hair (yeah, Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, pictured below).

So each episode presents some interesting phenomena in the world, and then various experts, historians, scientists, and theorists, give their two cents on its history and how it couldn't possibly have been created without alien intervention.  Ancient astronaut theory is the idea that in ancient times aliens (or astronauts) came and interacted with humanity whether it be because we humans are descended from those aliens, were created by those aliens, or were assisted by those aliens.  It's the base theory in this series, and most of those persons presented in the show are subscribers to that theory.

To be honest, whether or not you actually believe in the ancient astronaut theory is slightly irrelevant for enjoying this show.  I say "slightly" because if you really feel strongly against it, than it could ruin the viewing experience if you were to get angered by some of the assumptions and portrayals of ancient peoples (as my sister who studied anthropology brought to my attention.  She would get mad every time they showed ancient people in like lioncloths, and honestly, that did bother me, too....this primitive presentation of humans past.  Although, it was interesting to get some of my own speculations and thoughts affirmed or revised because she could provide a sounder knowledge base for which to judge the information presented in the show....but that's another discussion.  I just want to convince you to try watching an episode or two for funsies~.)

Anyways...  Outside of the actual content, every episode has amazing cinematography and editing, and it's very fun visually and music-wise.  Every episode also shows you a lot of amazing places around the world you might not have otherwise known about, such as the underground city of Derinkuyu in Turkey.  I had no idea such a complex underground civilization ever existed, and the video images were brand new to me and simply awe-inspiring.  It was really cool!

At the same time, with more commonly known places like the Nazca Lines in Peru, the video footage, although not the first of its kind, is still new (like new angles and more recently taken).  It's also interesting to see the CGI they have created to show how they look at and analyze evidence like the Nazca Lines or locations of objects through overlay or a total recreation.  What was really intriguing was the overlay and image comparisons to show how certain symbols and architecture represent constellations.  It was a neat aspect of the show that helped clarify for the viewer what the people in the show were talking about and visualizing themselves in their heads.

But! the show does tend to do this thing where it'll start off a bit sound and scientific and then make a huge jump to "see, so it's gotta be aliens" so fast ignoring academic conventions of citing sources and having reliable evidence, which sometimes frustrated me.  Like, sometimes the assumptions being made were already quite shaky or based off of questionable evidence or interpretations, and then BAM! ALIENS!  I'd get really hopeful, too, when things are building up really nicely and they maybe (although it happens rarely) present how an opposing theory is flawed and they show you how they're making the connections they're making and things kinda make sense and then omg intense sequences of CGI AND BAM! ALIENS!  Like, the jump is so high...  so so high.  And I'm always thinking, we were doing so good, guys.  There were definitely some more connections that needed to be made and evidence to be presented before you dove off the deep end with no reliable sources to back up your claims that there's no way Egyptians could have built the pyramids all on their own, that they had to have help. Sigh.

But the show is really fun to watch!  So I definitely recommend taking a peek!

Overall: 8/10 
Note* increases to 9/10 on those long lonely winter nights with a tasty drink and Snapchat in hand
Note** it's probably more of a 7/10 if you're not buying my spiel lol