Mar 30, 2011

Open Letter to Nat Geo, Discovery, and Ilk

O Mighty Custodians of Popular History and Science,

I'm tired of most of your programming.

I'm tired of programs that rehash the same history/ science and pretend to be new. I'm tired of Penguins, Nazis, King Tut, Polar Bears, Aliens, Tigers, Mythical Monsters, 2012, Nostradamus, Dinosaurs, Black Holes, Whales, and UFOs. If I had to put a number on it - looks like I'm tired of 80% of your content! (Pareto - it gets everywhere, what can I say!)

I hate how your programs feature silken-voiced narrators who pose rhetorical questions about the most banal things before a commercial break to build "suspense". For example: Narrator says "Could the team on the verge of proving Einstein wrong?... fade to Kellogs Corn Flakes commercial. Seriously? Dude, wasn't it obvious from the past 40 minutes of jabber that the old master WAS in fact wrong about some things? Your whole program was predicated on that. For all I care, the program TITLE was "Einstein's Greatest Mistakes".