The worst «Doc» on Netflix
“Ancient Apocalypse”
Unfortunately Popular: How Pseudoscientific, Demonstrably False Bullshit Made it on Netflix.
1/5
Journalist Graham Hancock travels the world looking for evidence of a non-existent mystical Ice Age civilization.
Silvia ChuiSociety Editor
Who doesn’t want to be enlightened about mysteries of the past? Curiosity and the gratification of curiosity are primal human traits. This is probably also the reason why so many conspiracy theories find willing disciples. And the reason why the pseudo-documentary “Ancient Apocalypse” is currently so popular on Netflix. Until a few days ago, it was still number 3 of the most streamed series in Switzerland.
Only briefly the main thesis: A highly developed civilization during the last ice age went down because of asteroid impacts, scattered survivors would have spread their knowledge all over the world – and would warn of new asteroid impacts. So far, so scientifically untenable nonsense – there is no solid evidence of an “ice age civilization”.
The main thing is to rail against scientists
It is very unpleasant when the presenter and author Graham Hancock (72), who incidentally proudly points out that he is not an archaeologist but only “asks questions”, calls for distrusting science. Already in the first episode he hints at a large-scale conspiracy of powerful archaeologists who would suppress the truth – what actually? Also: Anyone who has ever known an archaeologist personally knows that archeology is chronically underfunded internationally, both in terms of academic training and field work. Every real archaeologist can only laugh bitterly at “powerful archaeologists”.
The only question that remains is: how does such absolute nonsense make it to Netflix? The British «Guardian» has found the answer. Hancock’s son sits at Netflix in the position that distributes the orders.
Netflix: «Ancient Apocalypse»
Rating: zero out of five