I disagree with the other reviewers. I think this show displays the idiosyncrasies of dealing with the management of massive quantities of archaeological elements in a part of the world that is used to operating with a generally lesser educated workforce, difficult physical environment,and complex politics in play.
Dr. Zahi is a media hog, no doubt, but without a strong personality and demanding the people around him deliver 110%, the person in his position could not function. There must be a coherent vision and plan in play as Egypt continues to discover treasures. There are over 30,000 workers in Egypt working on excavations, how else could these be managed? It is also important for Egypt (read: Dr. Zahi)to give a united, comprehensive and competent presentation when discussing their national treasures; you cannot have every nut job with a shovel, opinion or doctors degree conveying their opinions of national treasuries in situations where the content may be out of context, inaccurate or just wrong.
I have little doubt the interns or "Fellows" were selected for dramatic effect, and that Dr. Zahi has a pre-planned agenda to push the interns to their breaking points, however, I do not think everyone is reading a script - remember the producers have hundreds of hours of video to edit, and it is easy to target in on one stupid comment made over several days, like "aliens could have built this"; he could have competently discussed intelligent and historic facts all day, but the editors targeted in one one sentence.
Regarding the peeing, if that was really pre-planned and scripted don't you think they could have come up with another more dramatic idea? And regarding Dr. Zahi's reaction, remember that HE brought foreigners into the countries sacred treasures, how would this be viewed from the Egyptian public, or flip the situation as if someone from Egypt pee'd on Mount Rushmore, or other national treasure?
The problem with this show is with the context the editors present to us, if you can see beyond that and read between the lines, it is a good show.
