Right now I am watching an episode of National Gepgraphic’s ‘Megastructures’. Today’s episode is on the World Financial Centre in Shanghai, China, and whilst interesting it doesn’t really do it for me.
The main reason is because… well, because it’s a building. There’s only so much that you can say about it, and in 45 minutes, you’re really stretching to find information.
To try and solve this, the producers try to create suspense into the program, making it seem as if the build will be late, or made incorrectly… or even that it will be unsuccessful and come tumbling down. The thing is, I as the viewer know that this is definitely not going to happen… because I would have heard about it already! Something like a skyscraper falling down would probably get some coverage.
Another favourite is focusing on small crews, getting scared and playing dramatic music whenever a piece of machinery breaks or some materials arrive late. That’s boring.
What’s left of the program, after all the suspense and repetition of ideas is removed, is a nice bit about the construction of the building, and its design. Fair enough, this can be quite interesting, but it’s not worth all the time given to it.
But there are still parts of this that annoy me, such as the comparisons. The narrator will never tell us the weight or dimensions of something, only an equivalent measure, such as its earth-to-the-ISS-and-back length, weight multiple of a grand piano, or a comparison with the size of a jumbo jet. Actual quantities please!
Oh, and the guy narrating this episode pronounces ‘ton’ to rhyme with ‘gone’ rather than ‘done’. What a dick!
As an example of the first point, at the part I’m watching at the moment, the narrator keeps carping on about how the base is doing something ‘it was never meant to do’. Complete balls.
Anyway, back to my cold and back to the program.
Yeah, it’s an alright show but it’s gone the fuck downhill recently.