Knowing of my interest in history, my father-in-law suggested I check out a History Channel show, Brian Meltzer’s Decoded. I’ve never heard of Brian Meltzer, but the premise—examining mysteries and conspiracy theories from American history—sounded promising.
The execution, however, is laughable. In the first episode, Meltzer’s three experts go looking for the “missing” White House cornerstone. After innumerable tangents, including a suggestion that the “missing” Capitol cornerstone might contain an alternate constitution, this show ends without making any conclusion other than the most obvious one: that the cornerstone is “hidden” underground actually, you know, supporting the building.
I’m not sure what was more painful to watch, the show or a sad-looking Chuck Norris hocking the Total Gym during my cable’s on-demand presentation of the show.
That said, I’m sitting here half-watching episode number 2 as I type this.
It’s on right now. This one seems to be about prophecies of doom. One scene showed a middles-aged woman ‘explaining’ to show’s hosts that the BP blowout in the Gulf of Mexico came close to creating a huge sea-floor collapse that woud have generated a tsunami that wipes out Texas. Yes, all of Texas, right up to the Oklahoma border. Why Louisiana would be spared, I don’t know.
If that’s their general level of scientific accuracy, I suppose I’ll give it a miss in the future.
I only saw the one on the Confederate treasure hunters. This crank spends all the episode playing connect the dots and find a words and the like with maps and cemeteries and gazebos and the like to find the Confederate treasury near Danville, VA. He actually said things like “The name of that battle is misspelled on that tombstone- clearly a clue!”
Anyone who’s done any genealogical research or research with primary sources knows that a misspelling on a public document/graveyard/Census/etc. means that it’s not spelled correctly; one of my Confederate ancestors has two (2) markers on the same grave, one of which has his date of birth and his unit and regiment wrong- it was probably a mix-up at the stone masons since one is a state issue. It’s indicative of nothing.
Forgive the spoiler, but the guy ends up not finding the Confederate Treasury. Clearly the landscape has been changed and messed up the clues.
I’m really just a lurker here, but I feel like I have to post to this thread.
Budy Levy, the English professor on the show, is a friend of the family. We were all so looking forward to this show because of Budy’s involvement. He’s a great guy and a wonderful writer (he’s written several books which the show fails to mention in his bio) but I know we stopped watching after episode three. The whole thing is so contrived. It makes us wonder who they think their audience is. It’s really a shame because the premise is great but, unlike History Detectives, which brix11 mentioned, the hypothesis is always a conspiracy theory.
Small world. The show does have some redeeming qualities, including the personalities of those involved. Except for Meltzer. Cut out his direction on the phone and his narration with that ridiculous background, and I might be more willing to watch.
I managed to make it 20 minutes into his Fort Knox expose. As a retired US Army soldier, and someone who spent more than my fair share of years there…the amount of misinformation spewed as they ‘cruised’ the local area was horrible.
Sniper towers at the airfield? Attack helos waiting to take down photographers?
They ‘weirded’ out over a local truck, black in color and with tinted windows, that cruised past them. The guy has a ham radio outfit in the back. He lives about six blocks over…a simple fact to uncover by looking at his back plate. They only looked at the front tag, a personalized, “Falcons” plate. Kentucky doesn’t require two tags.
I am sorely disappointed with the misdirection, the misinformation.
Anyone can come on Fort Knox. It’s as open a post as you get - and when they were filming, we still had Trainees here - all they had to do was show proof of ID, registration and insurance.
What a bunch of losers.
Brian, sorry, your show is a waste of my time and History Channel’s airspace.
I saw a bit of that episode and questioned that too. There are several museums that are open to the public on Fort Knox, and my sister and brother-in-law (neither of whom have ever been military) attended a wedding reception there last summer for a friend who’s stationed there and got on base, no problem.
This and the Travel Channel’s constant ghost hunting makes me think that a channel for more intelligent Americans would just have re-runs of Scooby Doo.
You can say this about the books like “Book of Fate” where he’s trying to be Dan Brown.
But, his early novels with young protagonists figuring out DC politics and getting in over their heads are excellent.
Especially if they’re read by Scott Brick.
I’m very picky about audiobooks, and two of my favorites are The Zero Game and The Millionaires. Meltzer’s young idealists are voiced perfectly and very believable (by an author who was in over his head in DC himself).
Hmm, maybe he should write a novel with young Bradley selling out and suddenly having to fill forty-seven minutes with conspiracy rantings, and suddenly realizing he’s been misled and manipulated … by himself!
That episode was like watching a train wreck. That guy was obviously mentally disturbed and if it wasn’t being televised, I’m sure that the stars of the show would have made their polite exit about 5 minutes into it. I liked how when he would follow his insane theory of the words and the maps, and when they didn’t pan out, he would declare that it was a “dodge,” a deliberate misrepresentation by the old Confederates to throw people off of the trail of the treasure.
Every episode I’ve watched I came up with the following theory;
This program is worth watching if there is nothing else on.
I’m a Free and accepted Mason, and Meltzer it’s obvious that he has a problem with our fraternity.
Gutzon Borglum carved Mount Rushmore because he was a member of the Ku KLux Klan, which is debatable but because he started on a carving Stone mountain and abandoned the project because of the (KKK) (By the way he and his son were Free Masons)
The program about General George Patton being assassinated was straight from the movie *Brass Target, 1979 *
I did like the DB Cooper story, but really you can scan my attic and find a lot of open spaces and hiding area’s (National Lampoons Christmas vacation comes to mind)
I caught part of the Area 51 show and the three stars running from a vehicle that was supposedly watching them. Well as a former Military Police, if I was to use my lights and siren to stop a vehicle and they refused to stop I would have arrested all three for evading, a former DA (one of the team members) should know that running from the police is illegal. If that part wasn’t scripted then the Patrolmen where getting tired of watching them, and wanted 1 of two things.
hey let have fun with these idiots.
I’m hungry lets go get lunch.
This program is for entertainment only and I’d rather watch a better scripted program like Pawn Stars, American pickers or even operation repo on the spike channel
Si Opus Quadratum vis, angulos praecidere noli…"
If you want Square Work, you don’t cut corners…
At the end of the day, the queen and the pawn go back into the same box!
It’s a full time job minding my own business
Bryan
I was just in an airport and needed a random airplane book for the flight. I bought a book called Inner Circle because everything else on the shelf was something I knew probably sucked, but I’d never heard of him.
He sucks too.
At least based on this book. The writing is so uneven and juvenile that it’s hard not to mentally pop out of the book at least once a chapter and wonder if he even has an editor. Or maybe an editor has cleaned this up already!