Abandoned Engineering

This is a very interesting show, however, it has one extremely annoying aspect. During the introduction to each piece of abandoned engineering to be viewed and discussed. It has these amateur dramatics where the experts put forward ridiculous scenarios as to what has occurred. It also dumbs down the discussion and treats the viewers as idiots. Otherwise it shows some very interesting subjects

It's a bit lighter on facts and figures than I'd prefer and definitely too heavy on the dramatisation, but otherwise excellent. I can't help but look up all the locations on Google maps of these amazing structures and then go digging in further on Wikipedia for more detail. Hugely entertaining and educational. I recommend this show to anyone with a passing interest in modern archaeology, architecture or recent history.

Abandoned Engineering had the potential to be a really interesting series about historical ruins and places of interest. Unfortunately the presentation is so bad it's practically unwatchable.

There's a constant backing track of "mood music" which is usually heavy on percussion. This often drowns out the voiceover, which switches between loud and quiet depending on the scene. It's all quite distracting.

Just as bad is the input from the narrator and many of the specialists, whose vocabulary mostly consists of melodramatic comments such as "almost alien", "something bad must have happened here", and similar inanities. With the honourable exeption of Roma Agrawal, who comes over very well, the presenters are all rather odd characters. There's the one with the intent, bulgy eyes, the one with the slow, mangled syllables, the slightly awestruck American... after not very long, it just grates. Too much gee-whizzery all round, I'm afraid.

This is a good series but could be so much better. I've bought books on ruins and abandoned buildings so I was really looking forward to the series. The stories are always interesting, some remarkable, but the style of production is so annoying, the equivalent of finger nails scratching a blackboard! I'm now at the point where I now don't bother watching. The fake suspense about the actual previous use of the building is so annoying and having studio based experts pretending they've actually been there instead of being shown a few seconds video and given information just doesn't work. The programme should stick to the local based guides who are far more effective and cut out the fake suspense.

A great idea for a documentary series. However, the producer seems scared that it might be too intellectual or serious and so doesn't show scenes that need to be looked at for longer than a couple of seconds. In the new series (seen in Australia, November 2022) there is now an annoying way old photos are split up. The commentary of Rob Bell and others is often inane, not adding anything to an understanding of the engineering. The chosen subjects and places are great, from all around the world and over the last couple of centuries. SO, keep up on a good basis, including interesting local experts and tour-guides.