"Cities of the Underworld" (2007) TV series 2007-????

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3

Release Date:

16 April 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History

Cast

Don Wildman

...

Himself - Host / ... (31 episodes, 2007-2009)

Runtime:

43 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Authentic Entertainment

Movie Connections:

Follows "Cities of the Underworld: Istanbul (#1.0)" (2007)

Interesting content, but marred by inane commentary and presenting

Getting a chance to see underneath some of the world's greatest cities is quite a treat. The shows find everything from mass graves to war bunkers to breweries, and the show gives an interesting insight into things that normally go unseen.

However, the show is difficult to watch due to the narration and the host.

The narrator keeps on labouring certain points over and over again. We know the premise of the show... underground places that aren't common knowledge. However she keeps on making this point. We see something under a train station, and she'll comment about how those in the train station don't know what's going on. Then she repeats this for every location, continually making reference to the people above being oblivious (the host also makes reference to this point a lot). Conversely she says at one point, while under Paris, that's you'd forget that 2 million people are above. Erm, why? We're under Paris and that's the entire point of the episode. Oh, I forget, we're trying to sound mysterious! When water drops from the ceiling, the host makes reference to 21st water dropping down to the 13th century.

Which leads me into Eric Geller, the host, has a similar style of trying to inflate everything. We see some walls made of bones, which themselves are enough to have an impact on the viewer at home without saying much. However we have to have Geller screaming about wildly. "There's bones!" Yes we know. "So many bones!" Yes, we get it. "LOTS of bones!" Be quiet now.

The show could be better if they stuck to the subject content without all the hyperbole. But it feels as if they are worried viewers will get bored, and the only way to keep them involved is by keep on repeating themselves rather loudly.