Treasure Quest: Snake Island

Finally a professional team of treasure hunters that are also interested in the history of the Jesuits and native South Americans. These guys have found lots of treasure in the past and have found some interesting stuff since the season 3 start. Very well done.

I just started watching this show from the beginning. I understand editing to make something more exciting but editing can also make something look real when it is not.

I think this series is at best a re-enactment of what happened and possibly is all made up. The "galleon" anchor is a 19th century one not 16th. We never see any artifacts in place (the Spanish coin cookies). The anthropologist, Meghan, doesn't seem to contribute anything but visual candy. She should have been able to look at the pottery shards they brought up and identify type/era and figure out the age of the wreck. Unglazed earthenware is terribly common and has been used for centuries.

There was no attempt to conserve the silver coins that were in coral matrix. The size of the anchor could be used to calculate the size of the vessel. The fact that there was a flimsy iron chain on the anchor reinforces the fact of its recent age. My guess is that a ship had to cut an anchor loose to either get away from the coast quickly or it had become wedged and couldn't be recovered.

I won't be watching the remaining episodes.

Jacques Cousteau's National Geographic specials were popular forty-plus years ago when I was still in college. One of the guys in the dorm, Russ D, was an avid diver and a major fan. (He later worked for Westinghouse in an engineering position that required diving -- Br'er Rabbit in the briar patch.)

We were looking forward to Cousteau's search for Inca gold, and eagerly gathered around the color TV of a dorm member whose father owned an appliance store.

It turned out that the lake supposedly loaded with jewelry and other artifacts was sorely lacking in gold. But it //was// full o'frogs. For the rest of the hour, we were treated to a show about giant frogs. "Frogs, frogs, frogs, frogs. Glorious frogs, marvelous frogs." (You can learn more by Googling "In the Land of Giant Frogs".)

Russ nearly had a fit. "I don't want to see a show about frogs!"

I can't help but think of that episode when watching "Treasure Quest: Snake Island". Given the way Discovery (and other cable networks) have created despicably dishonest "documentaries", one wonders whether someone had the brilliant idea of a series in which people visit an island infested with (supposedly) poisonous snakes, looking for treasure that never existed.

In fairness, the thing looks legitimate. Mehgan Heaney-Grier is a real free diver (best-remembered for her shows with Manny Puig and Mark Rackley), but I suspect she's present mostly as eye candy in what would otherwise be an all-male program. The other participants don't seem to be acting.

The first three episodes have been nothing if not attention-grabbing. The explorers have quickly located significant clues to the treasure's location. Whether they'll eventually find it...

Assuming this is a legitimate story, I predict they will. Cork, et al, wouldn't let the series be aired otherwise, as it would allow their unfinished work to be exploited by someone else.

My nine-star rating is strictly for entertainment value. Discovery has so badly poisoned the reality-TV well that one has to be suspicious of //everything// it shows.

An absolutely terrible show. The Legend of Croc Gold was another horrid gold show and this is no better. Fake. Made up drama. Scripted parts. Too much recap and very little substance. "Experts" behaving like idiots and assuming that the audience is naive and gullible.

Don't waste your time. There are better gold shows (Gold Rush, Bering Sea Gold, White Water, etc. all are/have become pretty formulaic but they're still miles ahead of this drivel).

I normally enjoy this type of show. Season one was ok but season two is verging on stupidity with the staging of events.

If anyone was to believe half the pish they talk and the scenarios. They need thier heads checked.