By Jared Fields, Managing Editor
A great TV day is when I can watch A&E Biographies, the History and Discovery channels and maybe a few episodes of “Law & Order.”
What I love about the previous three channels are the shows of the unknown, mysterious and even the grotesque. The best example of a show I used to schedule my life around is anything dealing with Atlantis. The show has so much mystery and intrigue with enough evidence to support a possibility of its existence. These characteristics make it my perfect kind of show.
My freshman year, ABC ran a two-hour special on UFOs. I don’t know if I believe in them or not, but the show drew me in nonetheless because I wanted to see proof in its existence.
Sunday, the Discovery Channel is showing a documentary by Titanic producer James Cameron entitled, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.”
But with the similarities in the promises of the titles, I will not watch this show, even though it is in my genre of shows I would enjoy because I know the ending.
Basically, in the tomb ossuaries were found with some inscriptions of biblical names surrounding Jesus such as his mother Mary, Mary Magdalene and a possible son. I bet the show doesn’t get much farther than experts arguing about this.
Controversy surrounds this documentary because of the legitimacy of the claims. Some say the names were common at that time and the location of the tomb is wrong.
What these shows have in common is the end. Anyone who has seen one of these shows knows how they end. You see a commercial or the introduction for the show and you think, “Wow, they’ve found Atlantis! I’ll watch to see where it is!”
Then the show comes to the conclusion and you see they know no more than at the beginning of the show and you just wasted an hour of your time to learn nothing.
I have seen a large amount of coverage about the Discovery Channel documentary on the news. Religion leaders and experts are refuting it, a small number are defending the show. I don’t care. I have seen enough of these shows to know they know no more about the subject than me. The filmmakers are just good at drawing out the information they have for a long time.
Thank you Discovery Channel for wasting my time when I thought I was going to learn something. Some people will be pulled to their sets on Sunday night to see if the tomb of Jesus has been found. All I see is another ploy to draw Christians en masse to a show for a ratings hike. I’ve been duped enough times by TV shows to waste my time, but it won’t work this time.
