ArchaeoBlog

A TV show purporting to find lost treasures, that is: SyFy’s (good Christ, I hate that name) Legend Quest. Now, I wasn’t going to watch it. Really. But, for reasons that shall become obvious later on, I was drawn in one afternoon for half of one episode and another half of another. In essence, it’s largely the same as many other shows in the same genre, all probably started (or at least popularized) by In Search Of. . . ..

This one follows Ashely Cowie, rugged Scotsman, as he follows clues all over the world searching for ancient relics and other mysterious objects. Apparently, he never finds them (surprise!). He looks for the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant, Excalibur, etc. I caught the Excalibur and something called the Cintamani Stone eps. What I saw of the Excalibur was pretty standard stuff: following various “clues” and “theories” to different locations, always seeming to be hot on the trail of the lost object, finding intriguing similarities to whatever legend, blah blah blah. Excalibur at least had a sword at the end — and it was. . . broken! — sitting in the British Museum, but it was a basic nondescript thing. Eh.

Now, I shall not be one to dismiss these sorts of things out of hand. Often the Mysterious Object acts as a hook to draw the viewer in and then the “search” is really just a vehicle to impart information on history, archaeology, literature, etc. Yes, it can be frustrating, but in the end I tend to judge these thing mostly on the amount and kind of real history they impart. Case in point: There was a program on the search for the real Arthur a while back that you knew was never going to come up with a definitive answer, but I still learned a decent bit of English history from it, so it was useful in that regard.

This. . . .well, I didn’t see much in the way of good history, mostly a lot of semi-adventuring with the host walking. . .no, striding purposefully toward the newest secret location, getting stuck in a cave, etc. Ashley Cowie’s a fairly decent host, pleasant voice, engaging, and, well, at least if you lean in that direction, pretty good eye candy:

One thing that does differentiate it is that they show the crew a lot. I’m not sure what that adds, but there you go. On the whole, however, I’d probably avoid it unless you’re into that stuff.

Oh, and, errrrr, it does have at least one singular attraction: