Abandoned Engineering

Abandoned Engineering had the potential to be a really interesting series about historical ruins and places of interest. Unfortunately the presentation is so bad it's practically unwatchable.

There's a constant backing track of "mood music" which is usually heavy on percussion. This often drowns out the voiceover, which switches between loud and quiet depending on the scene. It's all quite distracting.

Just as bad is the input from the narrator and many of the specialists, whose vocabulary mostly consists of melodramatic comments such as "almost alien", "something bad must have happened here", and similar inanities. With the honourable exeption of Roma Agrawal, who comes over very well, the presenters are all rather odd characters. There's the one with the intent, bulgy eyes, the one with the slow, mangled syllables, the slightly awestruck American... after not very long, it just grates. Too much gee-whizzery all round, I'm afraid.

I'm not sure. But as a fan of both Mysteries of the Abandoned and Abandoned Engineering it just feels that when i have watched an episode of Mystieries of the Abandoned, 3 days later Abandoned Engineering will air..

And i have watched it? Same narrative, same points. Only difference is the talking heads being swapped out..

So who is copying who? And why?

Don't get me wrong, i do enjoy the production quality.

But it just feels rehashed.

As in being done for lazy watching.

Is it because of different networks?

It is the same material after all.

How was this even produced?

Would be nice if they could be separated somehow.

It's a bit lighter on facts and figures than I'd prefer and definitely too heavy on the dramatisation, but otherwise excellent. I can't help but look up all the locations on Google maps of these amazing structures and then go digging in further on Wikipedia for more detail. Hugely entertaining and educational. I recommend this show to anyone with a passing interest in modern archaeology, architecture or recent history.

A great idea for a documentary series. However, the producer seems scared that it might be too intellectual or serious and so doesn't show scenes that need to be looked at for longer than a couple of seconds. In the new series (seen in Australia, November 2022) there is now an annoying way old photos are split up. The commentary of Rob Bell and others is often inane, not adding anything to an understanding of the engineering. The chosen subjects and places are great, from all around the world and over the last couple of centuries. SO, keep up on a good basis, including interesting local experts and tour-guides.

Some really interesting locations and curious relics. However the overly dramatic pseudo mysterious dialogue is highly irritating. There is no mystery, just fairly typical historic stories. Cut out the nonsense drama and the program would be much more watchable. That's assuming you can get past the grating 'expert' monologues!! Overall an interesting topic and visuals ruined by the assumption that theatrical presentation is required to sustain viewer interest!