Black Files Declassified

In Florida, waiting for another hurricane, and I was binge watching/listening to this show. I hated it, but it was white noise and made the time fly.

At first I thought it was a vanity show.. the host worked for the "CIA," had security clearances, blah, blah, blah. But by episode 5 of season 1 got me hooked. I like the format, short and sweet experts (who can't talk "on the record) interviews, even the 50 year old secret document episode was interesting TV.

I've learned how to correctly handle a weapon on the firing line.

Give it a try, tough it out for the first few shows, and like broccoli, it's terrible but good for you.

"The President has secret powers even those in Congress don't know about" were sagely told by one of the talking head experts.

Ugh.

How does this talking head know *ANY* of that statement? Not being the President, she couldn't know of secret exclusively Presidential powers. She can't possibly know whether Congress knows about those powers. Are we to believe she surveyed all 535 members of Congress? In other words, her entire statement is semantically null.

That's the problem with the entire show. It's vacuous. The host allegedly at one point had some sort of security clearance, but obviously he's not going to risk prosecution by violating that confidence onscreen. The rest are the usual "experts" with made-up qualifications and fertile imaginations.

Two stars for being more credible than Ancient Aliens. No stars for barely clearing that bar. Two stars.

I enjoy the show very much but I have a pet peeve that I'll get to in a moment because it doesn't take six hundred characters to convey.

I love the technological concepts that the show covers, especially the way wars will be fought in the future.

The technology that the United States comes up with is simply mind blowing and hopefully years ahead of our adversaries, though doubtful when you consider countries like China and others that would do anything to take over as the world's top superpower.

Ok, just eighty five characters to go so I can get to the point.

Would someone please tell the host that there is no such word as "nu cu lar". The word is "nuclear ". I would think that a show covering the subject of technology of the future would want to convey intelligence.

Thanks for the space to let me vent.

Tim cleaves.

Just noticed in season two and then went back and watched season one, how he can be driving a Chevy, the steering wheel's insignia is obvious, and he pulls up to the parking space and gets out of a Jeep, and another he's driving a black Chevy and pulls up and get out of a grey ford. Then the blurring out of the grill insignia but the steering wheel one is visible. Also driving a Equinox and gets out of a suburban. If those vehicles are rentals, which most probably are, they should have at least dusted off the dashboard before filming an episode that the dash and windows are very visible while driving.

I started binge watching the show and I'm only on episode three but there are several things that call the credibility of this program into question. One of the most notable was in episode two where they're discussing project Aurora. He literally interviews the military commander that came up with the moniker "Project Aurora" as a cover for the B-2 program spending. Then, in the very next scene, he continues on with the idea that project Aurora with some sort of cover for a hypersonic replacement of the SR-71. So, seemingly the entire premise of the episode is invalid. PS: A simple Google search reveals that Ben Rich, founder of the Skunk Works, also mentions the same thing in his book.

There are other things that caught my eye, for example, a drawing of the US Air Force VC-25 a.k.a. Air Force One with only two engines... lol. Another example was in the episode about how to stop an assassination... There are a number of places there where simple physics are misrepresented or misinterpreted, for example, the illustration of a fan to deflect bullets. There is a demonstration using a small fan, and then they conclude that it's impractical because people in the first several rows would be blown away... But obviously a device decided to deflect projectiles would not have any kind of angle on the blades to produce any wind!

Let's see how the rest of the episodes shape up and I'll post a follow-up review.