"Are We Alone?" Makes a Return Visit on Science Channel Tonight

"Are We Alone?"  Indeed...Science Channel asks this most mysterious question tonight and lucky for us they know how to make some terrific television to try to answer it.  As a follow-up to the tremendously effective two hours they produced last year -- Alien Encounters: The Message and Alien Encounters: The Arrival -- tonight and next week they bring us two more installments under the umbrella theme title of Are We Alone?.   March is -- and was last year, too -- an "Are We Alone?" theme month, though I'm not sure it's so much a month as just a Tuesday evening stunt, but that's plenty good enough.  What really makes this collection of programming special is that these four special are made with the help of the SETI Institute, the foremost authority on the search for alien life, and their participation ensures that these shows are both scientifically accurate and dramatically far-reaching, a perfect combination. 

Tonight's new hour, premiering at 10pm, is Alien Encounters: The Invasion.  If you saw the other two specials, you know that Earth intercepted a message from an alien source -- first contact -- and then in the second hour it was discovered that the aliens were headed straight for our planet.  If you didn't see these two excellent hours, you will have a chance tonight when they are repeated at from 8pm to 10pm, and we highly recommend watching.  Not only will it get you up to speed for the newest special, but these are hours that can stand up to repeat viewing.  They are superb, with believable fictional characters and scenes featured along with real scientists who offer their views on the history-making events taking place. 

No doubt these two new hours -- the fourth one premieres next Tuesday -- will not disappoint.  We've been introduced to several recurring characters who will no doubt be facing the scary reality of alien contact in these newest segments. Science Channel has managed here to combine some of the best scientific minds -- and not only merely brilliant, but enthusiastic and emminently entertaining -- with an appealing semi-documentary look to the dramatic segments that works to increase believability in material that skirts the unknowable. 

Don't miss Alien Encounters 2: The Invasion tonight at 10pm, with an encore at 1am, and last year's Alien Encounters: The Message and Alien Encounters: The Arrival at 8pm and 9pm, respectively, with encores at 11pm and 12 midnight. 

Keep Watching the Skies -- and your TV set!

Spend April Fool's Day with Karl Pilkington!

Science Channel brings an appropriate April 1st treat to us today, a marathon of the Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant/Karl Pilkington humorous travel program An Idiot Abroad, beginning at 2:30pm this afternoon with the intro show and continuing on until 3am tomorrow morning. If you caught these previously, you'll know that these are ripe for repeat viewing; they don't get dull and I think you'll appreciate Karl's droll presence even more as you re-watch.

Each of the episodes -- China, India, Jordan, Mexico, Egypt, Brazil and Peru, and the "Karl Comes Home" hour -- offer something different. Sometimes slapstick, often absurd, the humor in An Idiot Abroad transcends the obvious and Karl frequently ends up being more a philosopher than a clown.

If you don't know who Karl is yet, you're missing something wonderful.

Flaming Stumble: An Idiot Abroad

I'd like to introduce a new feature for the Nose. I shall call it The Flaming Stumble. It's for the odd program we stumble upon and may never watch again, but recognize that its inherent weirdness might appeal to someone out there in television land. Hence, it's worth a shout out, however brief.

As my inaugural Stumble post, I'd like to recognize An Idiot Abroad, a strange little reality/comedy/travel program now running on (of all places) the Science channel. I don't actually get the Science channel on my too expensive HD Comcast line-up. I found the Idiot accidentally while sniffing around On Demand.

An Idiot Abroad features round faced Brit comic Karl Pilkington, as he travels to exotic places around the world. He's xenophobic, politically incorrect, mystified and miserable wherever he goes. His clueless persona has developed a cult following in the UK, as well as on XFM, and Gervais himself has proclaimed the hapless chap "the funniest man alive in Great Britain today". I watched an episode where Mr. Pilkington was sent to China, where he marveled more at the street food (roasted toad and scorpions on a stick) than the Great Wall. His head is as round as a billiard ball, and it is sort of riveting to watch him trudge through alien lands. Ricky and Stephen call him on a satellite cell phone occasionally to offer advice or howl with glee at his exploits.

Ubiquitous comic Ricky Gervais hosts An Idiot abroad along with his friend (and Extras regular) Stephen Merchant. He calls the show "the most expensive practical joke ever". The Science channel has buried it on Saturday nights at 10pm, where only the lonely, the curious and seekers of human oddities will find and love its eccentric charm.

The "Meteorite Men" Season 2 Begins on Science Channel Tonight!

Maybe you're not one of those people who are fascinated by things falling to Earth, things that have been traveling in the vast mysterious expanse of the Universe for eons and finally, almost magically, end up here on Earth. The Flaming Nose undeniably IS one of the fascinated -- we're space junkies all the way and we love the serendipitous meeting of space and our lonely planet that is celebrated on Science Channel's Meteorite Men series.

The Meteorite Men are Steve Arnold and Geoff Notkin, world-renowned meteorite hunters who by profession and passion are synonymous with the quest for space rocks. Notkin owns and operates Aerolite Meteorites, a Phoenix, AZ-based meteorite shop with a tremendous website containing all sorts of great information. If you're watching the show, Geoff's the one without the beard and with the slight Brit accent (he was born in New York but raised in London). Arnold is a successful meteorite hunter and broker, has a beard and no accent.

After many appearances together on specials all over the TV dial, from PBS to cable, Arnold and Notkin were tapped in early 2010 to star in an intial season of five one hour Meteorite Men programs for the Science Channel, and they're beginning tonight back with a new season of eight episodes. Part science, part adventure, part luck, and part just plain hard work, Meteorite Men is always exciting and one of the good examples of the type of show that everybody is making these days -- reality combined with (sometimes) serious content.

Gone are most of the straight documentaries of yore -- they are in short supply these days, even on Discovery or Science Channel -- and though I understand what the networks are doing, I usually am not thrilled with the result. Everything -- everyone -- is trying overly hard to be entertaining as programmers dumb down content to troll for bigger audiences. TV is just a business, and reality-type programming is a form that offers viewers easy access, so we're going to see more and more of this kind of show masquerading as serious content. At least these guys are smart and enthusiastic, though I'm always a little uncomfortable when their talk quickly and inevitably turns to how much the space rocks they're unearthing are worth. Seems a little crass, but this is America and that's what most people get off on. (I hate the same thing about Antiques Roadshow.)

But that's showbiz, isn't it? Oh well. I'd rather be watching the Meteorite Men out adventuring than spoiled housewives shopping and bitching on some other network. Here's the promo for their second season:

And here's another nice spot with the guys talking about how studying science in school prepared them for their meteorite hunting:

The second season of Meteorite Men starts tonight at 9pm on Science Channel!

It's the End of the World --Almost -- on The Science Channel!

Oh my goodness! Saw a wonderful special on The Science Channel last Sunday evening, and it looks like it will be repeated this coming Monday Sept. 10th at 9am -- not sure whether this is Eastern time or what, but you need to figure it out and record this!

It's called "Super Comet" and it's all about what would happen if a comet collided with the earth today. Two hours long, it's chockful of well-done dramatic sequences interspersed with, best of all, real scientists offering the grim facts behind the dramatics. Naturally, the scientists are the best part of the show -- god, it's so wonderful seeing amazingly smart people on TV talking about what they know -- but the fictional sequences are pretty good, too.

You can run and you darn well better hide if a comet comes a'callin' here on Earth -- whew, it won't be a nice place afterwards. For me, one of the most eerie and telling moments is when a scientist who specializes in analyzing human reactions to disasters talks about how people simply cannot fathom the level of destruction that would result from such a thing. The mind can't wrap itself around the utter annihilation which lies ahead. And of course it's one of those inevitable things that's going to happen to our little planet one of these days.

"Super Comet" was fascinating and completely riveting. I highly recommend that you record and watch it. Unless apocalyptic futures don't float your boat, of course...

Survivorman--See it on The Science Channel

Just a brief shout out to folks who might enjoy the "survivor" reality genre but hate the contrived nature of the (big broadcast TV) program that spawned the whole movement. Here is one that, as far as we can tell, really isn't smoke and mirrors. Expert nature man Les Stroud is SURVIVORMAN on the Science Channel, and he is airlifted in to remote places around the world with his backpack, his camera equipment, and that's about it. He is given a week before the helicopters come pick his much abused body out of any God forsaken swamp, desert, and who knows where the Hell it is part of the world. Because he is on his own (no crew...all camera work is his), there is a nice air of authenticity to the whole production.

I stumbled across this program accidentally and started watching it on DVR recordings. As a professional worrier, I often wonder about how I would survive in catastrophic moments like; plane crash, drought, terrorist attack, asteroid or (weirdly horrific for me, because it has never happened) bee sting. This program might not save you from any of these things, but the calm, level headed outdoor tapestry that Les weaves on his show will at least make you believe that you have a glimmer of a chance....to survive.

http://www.survivorman.ca/
http://science.discovery.com/convergence/survivorman/survivorman.html