Watching Television During Week 46 of 2018

While I watched a bunch of different programs last week these three were ones that stood out for me during week 46 of 2018.

• Doctor Who, season 11, episode 6 – Demons of the Punjab – The team shows up in 1947 Pakistan in the middle of the partitioning of India where we see that Yaz’ grandmother lived through some pretty interesting events in the early days of the new country. She actually became the first woman married in Pakistan, unfortunately it also looks like she became the first widow in the country as well. All the while, we meet some new aliens, the Thijarians, who gave up their role as assassins to act as witnesses to heroic deaths now that they’ve been reduced to the last 2 surviving beings of their race. The episode is pretty good and I certainly know more about the Partition of India, the creation of Pakistan, and the bitter fighting between the Hindus and Muslims that occurred back then than I knew before I watched it.

• North Korea from the Inside with Michael Palin – This was not the Ministry of Silly Walks nor were there any Holy Hand Grenades thrown, rather it was an interesting look inside the hermit kingdom. I’ve watched Michael Palin go Around the World in 80 Days and then travel from Pole to Pole so I knew I liked him as a travel reporter but I got the strong sense that we were being shown exactly what the Koreans wanted us to see. Even with the controlled propaganda of the DPRK, it was a good refresher of what I learned from reading Without You, There Is No Us last year and I did enjoy the narration and visuals that Palin and National Geographic brought to television. Hopefully in the future more people will be able to visit this strange land and we’ll actually see Kim Jong-Un drop his paranoid fear of the outside world and join the community of nations in peace.

• The Curse of Oak Island, season 6, episode 1 – Rick’s Big Bang Theory – Seismic surveys, coffer dams, laser ablations, and all around metal detection are on the agenda for the Lagina brothers this season on Oak Island. This episode lays out the overall plans for how the team is approaching their treasure hunt this year with 3 big areas of focus – the Money Pit, the Swamp, and Smith’s Cove. Each location has their specific projects that the team is undertaking and Marty and Rick are also looking to drag a metal detector over every inch of the island. With plans laid out the team begins with a round of metal detection where they discover another brooch artifact and a series of ring bolt holes that could have been used to haul heavy objects around the island. In all, the episode was a nice overview of what to expect during season 6 and I’m on board to see what (if anything) they find.

Let me know if you watched any of these and what you thought.

TV | Watching Television During Week 46 of 2018