I love archeology and was overjoyed when I first found this show. But after seeing a few episodes my enthusiasm decreased markedly.
It seems all too often they end up digging a site where there's nothing to be found. Or what they can find doesn't translate very well into television format. An imperceptible stain in the soil that we're told is ironclad proof of an Anglo-Saxon settlement is hardly riveting. And then there's the regular crew, some of whom I find to be nigh unto repellent in their on-air personas (Phil being chief in that regard).
Then, with scant to non-existent evidence the whole staff, no doubt desperate to make a program out of nothing, go off on wild speculation about the vast villa or palace that once surely graced the landscape. I guess it's safe enough to do that as there's seldom any method to verify whatever theories they cook up, no matter how outlandish and unsupported.
I could still find the program very interesting if they'd just give up on the idiotic (and utterly arbitrary) 3-day time limit. Home many shows have they ended with the closing "well, we could have done better if we'd have only had a little more time" or some such. Here's an idea - TAKE THE TIME YOU NEED TO GET THE JOB DONE.
Anyway, it was a nice try. I just wish they'd have approached it differently.
It seems all too often they end up digging a site where there's nothing to be found. Or what they can find doesn't translate very well into television format. An imperceptible stain in the soil that we're told is ironclad proof of an Anglo-Saxon settlement is hardly riveting. And then there's the regular crew, some of whom I find to be nigh unto repellent in their on-air personas (Phil being chief in that regard).
Then, with scant to non-existent evidence the whole staff, no doubt desperate to make a program out of nothing, go off on wild speculation about the vast villa or palace that once surely graced the landscape. I guess it's safe enough to do that as there's seldom any method to verify whatever theories they cook up, no matter how outlandish and unsupported.
I could still find the program very interesting if they'd just give up on the idiotic (and utterly arbitrary) 3-day time limit. Home many shows have they ended with the closing "well, we could have done better if we'd have only had a little more time" or some such. Here's an idea - TAKE THE TIME YOU NEED TO GET THE JOB DONE.
Anyway, it was a nice try. I just wish they'd have approached it differently.