12-10-2012, 10:53 PM
I know that complaining about Romans-on-TV is a bit of a theme on RAT (and I'm guilty of it), but I have to disagree with Robert about this one! I was quite looking forward to it as some light entertainment, mainly because I like those computer graphic bits of huge buildings rising up out of the ground... But the show left me annoyed more than anything.
Part of the problem is Dan Snow ('as a military historian' he says at one point - eh?). He totally lacks screen presence or charisma, and tries to feign it by looking intense and gesticulating a lot. At least Simon Schama has actually written stuff, and appears to know what he's talking about. The content was occasionally interesting (the North Africa stuff in particular), but it was all let down by the tone. There was this silly insistence that history was being 'turned on its head' (as Dan put it) right there on the show, as we watched! Assorted archaeologists, no doubt eminent in their field, were made to mug to the cameras and feign intense interest as some pre-scripted 'discovery' was unveiled on unlikely-looking 'computer technology' screens (complete with whizzing clicking noises and meaningless techno-icons). A bit insulting, I would think, considering a lifetime of study was supposedly being 'overturned' here! The Dacian specialist looked especially woebegone as he pretended never to have noticed a huge earthwork at Sarmezigetusa until it was pointed out on the space-map...
The 'discoveries' themselves were mildly interesting, but not as earthshattering as the presentation of them wanted us to believe. Why did Dan Snow have to put on a wetsuit and dive into the Danube just to 'discover' the murky foundations of Trajan's bridge? And the lengthy scene of several people driving around the Tunisian desert in landrovers 'searching' for a 'lost' Roman fort was just stupid.
Turned thumbs for this one!
Part of the problem is Dan Snow ('as a military historian' he says at one point - eh?). He totally lacks screen presence or charisma, and tries to feign it by looking intense and gesticulating a lot. At least Simon Schama has actually written stuff, and appears to know what he's talking about. The content was occasionally interesting (the North Africa stuff in particular), but it was all let down by the tone. There was this silly insistence that history was being 'turned on its head' (as Dan put it) right there on the show, as we watched! Assorted archaeologists, no doubt eminent in their field, were made to mug to the cameras and feign intense interest as some pre-scripted 'discovery' was unveiled on unlikely-looking 'computer technology' screens (complete with whizzing clicking noises and meaningless techno-icons). A bit insulting, I would think, considering a lifetime of study was supposedly being 'overturned' here! The Dacian specialist looked especially woebegone as he pretended never to have noticed a huge earthwork at Sarmezigetusa until it was pointed out on the space-map...
The 'discoveries' themselves were mildly interesting, but not as earthshattering as the presentation of them wanted us to believe. Why did Dan Snow have to put on a wetsuit and dive into the Danube just to 'discover' the murky foundations of Trajan's bridge? And the lengthy scene of several people driving around the Tunisian desert in landrovers 'searching' for a 'lost' Roman fort was just stupid.
Turned thumbs for this one!
Nathan Ross
