Greetings,
Sometimes good things go away and the only thing that comforts us is something else very similar coming along to, in a way, take its place. Some of you may recall that I did a Top Ten list of my favorite "Half-isodes" of a show called Destination Truth. Go back and read it, if you'd like. I really loved that show, mostly due to all the amazing people involved, especially the main man, Josh Gates. Go and read the book he wrote, which I also reviewed. Anyway. After a lengthy hiatus of sorts, wherein we, the many fans of DT, were constantly asking for its return, we found out that it would be on the air no longer. Of course, it got cancelled. Because it was good. And television only has so much room for nonsense like that these days. But, thankfully, something new came along that kind of reminds me of Destination Truth in a lot of ways.
If you don't know, Destination Truth was a series on the Syfy channel wherein people went searching for the truth about strange things all around the world. They went ghost hunting, monster hunting, bigfoot hunting...like seven times. Yeah, apparently, every neighborhood in the world has their own version of bigfoot. Good for them. For me, personally, I was less interested in the actual hunting aspect and more attracted to the time they spent learning about whatever country's culture in which they happened to be immersed at the time. So much so, I thought it would have been more suited to the Travel Channel. Speaking of which, after DT's official cancellation, we did get a similar show, airing on said Travel Channel, and also starring Josh Gates, called Expedition Unknown. So, how similar are the two shows? And which, if either, is better?
Well, obviously, Mr. Gates is back, but he's on his own this time. Yes, he does have help from the locals on his searches, but the team we DT fans were so used to are not along for the ride anymore. And the things for which he is searching are a little less...SyFy-y, for the most part. The first episode was about the mystery of Amelia Earhart, and he has since covered things like Jesse James and Captain Morgan's Gold. It's actually more of a treasure hunting show of sorts, which now makes me think it might be better suited to the History Channel. Darn it all! In all seriousness, I do really like this new show. It is different, but it has a very similar feel to it. I'd say that's mostly thanks to the fantastic charisma of Josh Gates.
So, to answer my previous question, which of these two shows is better? Well, I do hold a special place in my heart for Destination Truth, and if I had one complaint about the new show it would be that I miss the team. Yes, I heartily miss people like Mike and Gabe and Rex and the first lady of DT, Erin Ryder. I just miss the fun comradery that took place with them all. It was a wonderful part of the show. But I am certainly happy to have Josh Gates back on my TV, even if he is all by his lonesome. So, since I have five seasons of history with DT and that show had a larger quantity of cool people, I suppose I would pick that as my favorite of the two. However, those are really the only reasons why. So, it's more of a technical thing. I am not taking a single thing away from the awesomeness that is Expedition Unknown.
In fact, I have come to truly enjoy this new show. We are only a mere ten episodes in and I can already see the potential for this to last for a while. We're learning things in a way that makes it feel like not actually learning, which is something that I bet a lot of people like. But I think that's Josh's specialty. He would be like that cool teacher that everyone likes, where you're having such a good time in his class and before you know it, you think 'Oh, crap! I'm learning stuff, aren't I?' Good times. Anyway, I've always been a big admirer of his, and I'm fine with having just him for now. Although, fingers crossed that he decides to bring some of his former teammates along for some future adventures. Maybe once that budget starts going up. Here's hoping. In the meantime, give Expedition Unknown a watch.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
