Brad Meltzer's Decoded seemed like a great idea, and offered the possibility that the History Channel would present something with some actual facts and information worth learning. Unfortunately, the first episode revealed that it was more of the dribble which has become the all too common offering. The advertising for the series said it would investigate and solve a mystery each episode. The first episode did neither. Much of the "investigation" involved chasing common clichés about the Freemasons. Rather than find information about the supposed conspiracy or even better the supposed loss of the cornerstone of the White House (i.e., the topic of the episode), the episode built a house of cards from an almost total lack of evidence. It was obvious before the first commercial that they had no intention of solving the mystery, but rather of dredging up dirt on the Freemasons. From there on it got more and more painful to watch the mounting silliness and plain ol'BS as the show continued. It seemed like Meltzer's monologues were desperately trying to convince the audience that there really was a conspiracy, when the evidence obviously didn't support that conclusion. After the Freemason conspiracy idea petered out in the face of simple logic, the show wandered off trying to connect the missing cornerstone of the Capital Building to that of the White House; and failed (that section of the show had the feeling of nothing but filler). As for solving the mystery; we find out that there really was no mystery; something which, apparently, every expert except those in the show already knew. It was terribly frustrating to see what a disaster the first episode was, given the great potential behind the concept of the series. We were hauled through a faked mystery, with ongoing commentary leading us to think there was an actual purpose to the investigation, only to find that there was nothing to the subject. This looks like another History Channel presentation which should get skipped in the future.
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