User reviews

I'm not going to bore you with a synopsis of my personal beliefs here, nor pick apart the assertions made by the show's creators and contributors. Ancient Aliens is equal parts compelling and laughable. Both thought-provoking and ludicrous. Always, however, entertaining. The show is well put together, and moves along well. Did E.T. visit our ancient ancestors? Did they influence our modern religions? Was alien technology used to help the ancients build huge megalithic structures? The show's "experts" say yes, and attempt to put forward evidence to back up their claims. Yes, it is slanted in one direction. I'm being more charitable than other reviewers here though. After all, the title is "Ancient Aliens". What else would you expect? In any case, if you're a critical thinker who also doesn't mind stretching credulity for the sake of good entertainment, you'll enjoy this. For every time I scoffed, there have also been parts that really blew my mind. Give it a try.

Before letting you know my thoughts about the show,it would be very useful to inform you about my beliefs. In my opinion,when a person judges a documentary which presents non-mainstream information/ideas, the reader must be sure that there is no extremist or conservative point of view.

Personally i find it not only hard,but also foolish to accept everything mainstream archaeologists propose. But on the other hand i am not really a big alien fan,and i do not have a theory of mine which i am radical about.I simply like being skeptic and more importantly always trying to find reason in everything.That being said,let's move on to the actual review.

The biggest plus of the show is it's most obvious element: you know it is going to try to convince you about the existence of aliens and their appearing in human history and you definitely have the curiosity about how they are going to achieve it! Furthermore,you get what you would expect to get from a show messing around with that subject: lots and lots of footage from ancient monuments,artifacts,drawings,carvings,legends and scripts. That alone is justifying the summary of my review. Huge variety of information about many civilizations from all over the world are presented in good detail;not about every aspect of the culture thought, just information related to the topic of the show (personally i don't think it is bad to stick to the topic). The pieces of the "puzzle" created are so many, and at the same time the -original- footage is so eye-grasping that it gets you thinking.

On the other side however on SOME occasions, the philosophy and attitude of the "experts" presenting the show,follow the general rule of flawed approach to the truth:instead of trying to prove their claims the best logical way they can in order to MAKE YOU think for yourself (possibly) that "yea,they could be right,from what i see it is very possible that...", they prefer to prove them by disproving (and using irony in small doses) the other side,which on our occasion is mainstream archaeology. This,along with the fact that (again,on some occasions) they seem to jump on the desired conclusion a bit too easy, is why it gets 8/10.

As i pointed out,it is a decent show to watch no matter your beliefs, even if you don't care about aliens at all. The huge variety of original footage gives "Ancient Aliens" a quality only reduced by the occasional "extremism" of its main speakers. Bottom line:give it a try. It may convince you, or it may not, but you will learn something new for sure.

I am sorry but I cannot watch this show for more than 10 minutes without shouting at the screen. It is worse now, I now find that I am getting annoyed at all TV documentaries after watch some of this show. They still talk about things as mysteries when they were solved years before, that things are fact when they aren't. They use lines like "Many People" and "Some scientists believe" never giving facts and figures. I find the main presenter patronising. Sorry I just can't watch any more of this show. Where has the Science and actual history gone. Where is the balanced reporting. How can someone look at a camera and state something to be a mystery when the facts are well known.

You know what I find funny..All the debunker's trying to debunk but offer no viable counter-argument to anything that is said in this documentary. If anything they only offer another side of speculation. The Egyption Saqqara bird..actually looks similar to a bird but upon closer examination from where the wings are placed to the tail it really does resemble more of a glider craft. As far as I know all birds have their tail feathers horizontal, NOT VERTICAL and bird wings are not located atop their back. They actually state this many of times. There are a lot of archaeological mysteries out there. I don't think all of them can be considered related to aliens granted. That does not mean that it is not a possibility. The fact remains that there are mysteries out there and people are ignoring them for what ever reasons. WHY?!!!? Now what is the deal with the Bermuda Triangle and The Dragons Triangle being on the same latitude where both sites have said to be hot spots for UFO activity? As well as well as having weird magnetic phenomena oh and the Yoniguni monument thats literally right off the point of the dragons triangle..now before you naysayers say anything. UFO means UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT. IT DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN IT IS EXTRA- TERRESTRIAL.. How about the Vihmana Story? How old are vedic texts describing vihmana or (flying machines). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see correlation between flying machine and a god that comes from the heavens..that maybe..hmm.. maybe it was an alien. Now I have to mention the correlation between every religion in the world having a being come down from the stars "heavens" and teach them culture, technology, way of life. This is a prominent experience shared by all cultures and religions in the world. Especially more curious as to why cultures that seemingly had no contact with each other decided to all start building pyramid type structures around the world. For gods sake man they brought in skilled stone masons and architectural engineers to take a look at some of these old stone monolithic creations..and even they are confused and state that recreating the same structures would be incredibly difficult with today's technology. Sure it may be a little brash to jump the gun and claim its all ancient aliens.. But seriously for the people who naysay or try and debunk do a little research into the field before you start making absolute claims on a subject you know absolutely nothing about. Science is subject to the same blind faith dogma as religion or any other belief system. With that in mind there will be fanatics going every which way. Ancient aliens and dogmatic science. I'm shaking the foundation of your ivory tower to tell you that I killed your high horse. Watch this series with an open mind. Draw your own conclusions and research, research, research. There is a lot of information out there pertaining to this vast subject. Remember and I know its cliché' we thought the world was flat once..Galilleo said non sense..we burned him for it. Its no surprise that information like this will rock the cradle for the mass fragile minds that can't think outside the box if there life depended on it. It's funny how debunker's will nit pick to spin their argument the way they see fit..totally ignoring information and documented accounts of said subject which lends even if small, credence to the idea of Extra- terrestrial contact/inter-dimensional contact or advanced military technology. They accuse the conspiracy theorists of straw-manning when the debunker's are doing the exact same thing..OHH THE HYPOCRISY! Through the entire series everything that was proposed is proposed in maybes, ifs, could bes, plausibles. This is a good thing because they are not making ABSOLUTE statements. Although when one researches and draws correlations between certain events and phenomena..one starts to see the maybes, ifs, and plausibles turn into Most likely. Last time I looked, the scientific community is still trying to prove the big bang, dark matter etc. All they have is a theory. A plausible one at that but there are many holes and many contradictions and these are theories that have yet to be proved. Yet for some reason most mainstream scientists and physicists take it as fact. I wonder how many times our science textbooks will have to be re-written due to new physics laws etc.. Remember. Our technology is relatively primitive. Earth is only 4 billion years old..There are planets out there billions of years older. THINK, DRAWING CORRELATIONS. DEDUCTIVE REASONING IS NOT A BAD PRACTICE!

I found the information offered in this documentary series tremendously insightful and refreshing given that it does not attempt to conform to the accepted boundaries of mainstream beliefs. The information is not portrayed as hard fact as other reviewers have suggested. The theories put forth in support of alien presence on earth are extremely compelling and essentially left up to the viewer to decide.

Whilst I would not recommend this series for those who are either prejudiced or easily offended by views that conflict with religious beliefs, I think it is important for all others to be aware of certain events and facts contained within as many were not comprehensively reported on by mainstream media.

I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon this documentary series and I thank the producers.

It is ironic that the "father" of the Ancient Aliens theory, Mr. Erich Von Däniken, is the last person on earth who would sell his theories as "hard science".

In fact, having seen him in person in my youth, as well as in several excellent TV interviews, Erich will not get tired of pointing out that it's on the watchers and readers to come to conclusions on their own.

He keeps asking questions, instead of saying "it is so" as we see in the so called "established" sciences. He will ask questions like "could it be that..." instead of claiming that his theses are the last word. Heck, he even admits that he made errors in the past.

Erich is right too in pointing out that it is very often the established sciences (for example Egyptology) which is stuck in and bound by dogmas - in essence meaning that science is also more often than not a belief system, with scientists being the "believers".

The Ancient Alien theorists and "believers" make it clear and never denied that their theories are, well, speculation. Speculations which are indeed healthy because they encourage to question scientific theories and dogmas which are written "in stone" for centuries already.

There is nothing wrong with that.

Only if you ask such questions and accept alternative views you are indeed conducting real and true science.

Should you ever encounter the History Channel (it will always be the HISTORY CHANNEL to me) documentary series "Ancient Aliens", it would be a wise choice to watch it not with a grain of salt, but rather, a whole salt shaker. The series, which chronicles theories about "ancient astronauts" and possible historical encounters primitive cultures had with extra-terrestrial life and how it impacted the world, is a fine example of pseudo-science at at times blatant science-fiction masquerading as scientific fact. While some of the stories are intriguing, and while I do indeed believe in extra-terrestrial life (and that it may have contacted the modern world), the show presents so much conjecture and idea-grasping, that one cannot possibly take this series seriously.

Each episode centers on a different topic, from alien technology, to rumored underground or underwater cities that were the result of alien/human contact. A panel of "experts" (aka, UFO enthusiasts and pseudo-scientists) discuses theories ranging from remotely credible to downright diabolically far-fetched and implausible.

Although given my complaints about the rampant idea-grasping, sensationalizing the series presents, and the blatant pseudo-science, I will give credit in that the show has a great deal of entertainment value when viewed as a piece of science-fiction and as mere entertainment. Some of the stories and theories portrayed are riveting in their own way, and it's a great deal of fun to watch. In addition, some of the "scientists" and "experts" who appear frequently serve as good presenters and real-life "characters", giving the show a bizarre watch-ability.

While the show desperately attempts to be a serious documentary series, it fails overall, and as a documentary, I'd give the show about a 3 out of 10. However, the interesting stories presented, the unintentional hilarity of the show, and the delightful "characters" who are humorously misleading and present wildly insane ideas, give this show a high entertainment value, and a likability factor of about a 9 out of 10. So, averaging those scores together, the show is elevated to a very watchable and enjoyably, slightly-above average 6 out of 10 when viewed strictly as entertainment. Like I said, swallow many grains of salt when you turn this on, and watch it is Science-Fiction, and it will provide some great laughs. But watch it as a serious, real-life documentary, and you will be sorely disappointed.

For me, it's the most thought-proving show behind How the Universe Works and Space's Deepest Secrets.

To all the people who tear this show apart because they think it's nonsense: You're completely missing the fine details about these discoveries from our ancient past and how to explain them using our i-m-a-g-i-n-a-t-i-o-n.

For example, try explaining the Antikythera mechanism. An ancient mechanical analog computer, designed to calculate astronomical positions and eclipses of celestial bodies within our solar system decades in advance, and with extreme precision. It could even correct for the elliptical orbit of our Moon. It is dated to approx. 150-100 BC. A time where a basic telescope is not known to exist.

There are massive holes in our known evolution of Human intelligence and technology, just as much as there is a gap in our evolutionary tree as a species. This knowledge didn't just fall from the sky...

Or did it?

This series makes realistic optimistic believers look bad. This is so absurd. Nearly every single episode will tell you about 30 outright lies, and say something like "IT IS CATEGORICALLY TRUE" (what? lol) outlandish lies and stretches of the truth. the worst of conspiracy and ridiculous ideas that you cant even listen to without yelling at the TV. the basic idea of most of these topics aren't horrible in themselves, but i have seen made decent points, with counter points (oh yeah, its 100% on sided) for the topic, making you think. this just makes you mad. also, i am a Christian but open to the idea of life in the universe, perhaps even visiting here. however, constant knocking on religious views of every religion will be here. and i know it comes with the territory, but they don't even try to make it at least watchable to someone who's faith wouldn't be shaken even if this became truth. im sorry for the rant. i have been watching and reading into the subject of life outside earth for nearly 20 years now, and i see a lot of garbage out there. this takes the cake.

Season two episode three they speak about an underwater megalith just off the coast of Japan small island of Japan not exactly sure but they comment about how this underwater megalith is supposed to be a religious site when all it is is a ancient Rock quarry that is now under 60 feet of water sorry but nothing special there. Thomas kimbrell

I used to get quite a kick out of this series because I enjoyed the guests, the variegated sites, and, yes, the cinematography (if it can be called that). However, in the last two seasons, the show has degenerated to a point beyond ridiculousness.

First, let me say I have firsthand knowledge (indeed, direct experience) with scientists who have contributed to the show--in fact, appeared on the show--only to later protest that their opinions were grossly misrepresented. For nearly every piece of "evidence," various alternative explanations are available but simply are not presented. This is not what one would call balanced reporting. If we wish to make incredible claims, we must provide incredible proof.

But more upsetting is the steadily increasing dose of pseudoscience, of which I will provide three examples: the first arguably weaker, the second and third extremely strong. Some scientist is quoted as declaring that such-and-such site in Bosnia is a pyramid. My friends, not every topographic feature that is narrow at the top, wide at the bottom, and _vaguely_ quadrangular is a pyramid. More proof is required. Far more distressing are abject _lies_ that are presented. We are told that "the Washington Monument aligns with the constellation Orion." I cannot for the life of me determine how a _single_ vertical structure can "align" with any complex pattern. If the monument aligns with Orion, then it also aligns with every other constellation. We are also told that the ancient inscriptions on such slab or other amazingly provide the latitude and longitude of the site--far before human beings understood such concepts. This is an abject lie. For, "latitude" has some absolute meaning: the equator is fixed and its position crystal-clear, and one can make a stab at identifying a latitude in an ancient petroglyph. But, since the position of the prime meridian is _purely_ _arbitrary_, how could ancient aliens have taught some tribe the longitude of a site? Wait: let me guess: the aliens had knowledge of where--some time in the future--a British astronomer would stab his cane into the ground in Greenwich and say, "Let's put the prime meridian _here_." And I will only just mention in passing the host of "researchers" who throw around terms such as "energy force field," clearly understanding neither energy, nor force, nor fields.

Sorry, editors of "Ancient Aliens," but you really must control the nonsense factor if you want to have any chance of convincing those who actually understand science and mathematics--rather than groupies who are wowed every time someone makes a glib claim that the evidence patently fails to support.

I just signed on today (30 October 2013) after viewing the first twelve minutes of the episode "The Satan Conspiracy" and concluding, "Enough is enough already!" Not only have the producers absolutely, totally, unmitigatedly run out of material--choosing to identify any millimeter-wide glitch in a painting or pebble that looks like it has a one percent chance of having been "engineered" as ironclad evidence that aliens have visited. To make matters worse, the pseudo-science has risen to a level where even a schoolchild recognizes that random non-experts are proffering random verbiage about utter nonsense.

I've been recording this series for years. After deleting this episode, I updated all three of my DVRs, no longer to record the series. I've simply had it!

...white people didn't do it, doesn't mean it was aliens

I found this series extremely good in wide varieties of topics it covers. I also like the up beat way it presents the topics. Guest speakers are all top notch that speaks interesting view points, and dedicated to their profession. I find the best of American TV in this series in that it presents enormous amount of information that elevates the knowledge ( true or false is up to the viewer to decide ) of its viewers. I was watching lot of Hong Kong movies, and although they are entertaining, does nothing to increase the amount of information you have by watching them.

Just the fact that there are people to tackle subjects like this and can presents them in a high quality format like this says something about the country its produced in.

Often the visuals shot on location in this program is stunningly beautiful, and other visuals are also high quality. I like the way the topics are presented in a crisp and unambiguous fashion.

In my opinion it is by far the best series of this type, and best entertainment on the subject of UFOs and Ancient Aliens.

Highly recommended.

Why does this get a low rating? probably because of religious people that cant take the Logical theories that this series is telling.

I have read a lot of holy books and i even grew up a Christian myself but after watching Ancient Aliens a lot of my questions were answered and it sounded way more logical than what i was teached on school and in the church when i was younger.

This series only gives logical theories and sometimes even hard facts about human history, this is what kids should be learning at school.

This is our history, the Ancient Aliens theory.

Haters can go and dislike this and bash the rating but they are just ignorant or too dumb to understand.

Ancient Aliens is a great series that explaines a lot of mysterious and unsolved history in the most logical way.

In the end Science will prevail and this theory will be proved.

10/10

Ancient Aliens is one of the most original shows on TV. Why if it's not new to hear about UFOs and Aliens?

Everything starts with Erick Von Daniken, the Author of several books and one of them "Chariots of the Gods", a great best seller all over the world.

After his own research, Von Daniken concludes that many different cultures including manuscripts and books such as The Holy Bible have information that either is ambiguous, doesn't make sense, or it's difficult to understand. And the only way to understand that was attributing everything to Magic and Gods. But through his own rhetorical questions he believes to have found another explanation: What if another civilization from else where came to earth for whatever reason and started life here? All of a sudden everything made sense. Of course, we can't prove it, but it's a theory that fits well within many stories, only believed to be fairy tales or legends up until now.

The only thing that keeps encouraging us believing in that possibility as an option is the fact that many cultures spoke about that in their messages to the future generations. And the fact that there are structures that are a mystery as to how, why and who may have build them, along with items found by archaeologists and other people.

Please don't criticize the show, or the theories. It's just a theory, and a good one. The fact that we don't have yet the technology to contact anybody from out there, doesn't prove that they don't exist. It's just like when somebody in the past said that Earth was rounded, and everybody else laughed. We had to wait centuries to prove it.

At this point we can't prove either way. But Scientist will never admit something like this without facing ridicule.

The show is in my personal point of view a continuation of Mr. Von Daniken work, and we are all entitled to believe or not on the premise that there could be Aliens out there, and there were in the past.

The only mistake I see in the producers of the show might be sometimes getting carried away with some affirmations during the latest shows. But in the season 6, I noticed that they toned it down. That's all, just keeping the right balance is all the show needs. But the ideas, theories and premises are still interesting and entertaining. Let's face it, we are in the 21st century, with so much technology, and what, we still believe only in magic? Instead of accepting the possibility of a more advanced race? Not because some hidden tribe in the amazon haven't seen the Europeans, Americans, Japanese or any other advanced culture, doesn't mean that they don't exist.

Over all, I'll give it a 10 of 10, it's a great show for the believers. If the X files got a good rating, why not this one?

It is a breath of fresh air to see someone investigating history without the silly evolution theory guiding them, but while they are definitely finding extraordinary evidence of unearthly beings, they fail to keep their mind open to anything beyond the idea of extra terrestrials wielding technology. This is causing them to jump to conclusions and ignore other evidence. Other than this, this show can be informative and thought provoking.

First off it is safe to say the show is obviously about the theory of Ancient Aliens...Hence the name.

Having said that, as with any theory one is challenged with making up their own mind when it comes to the belief or non-belief in said theory.

The show presents a lot of topics to research, and give some thought too.

I personally enjoyed the show, because it is hard for me to accept the fact that we think we know everything there is to know about our existence. Which, we have, throughout our own history dis-proved our own beliefs countless times, although very reluctantly in most cases.

Example: We once thought the Earth was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around us. (we thought we were the "Pinnacle" of creation) Then it was discovered that the sun don't orbit us, we in fact orbit it. Then we discovered that we are not even in the center of our galaxy. We are in fact out on almost the outer reaches of one of its arms.

We still have people that think we are the "Pinnacle" of creation. Which is their right to believe as such I suppose.

However, within our brief existence it would be very naive at best to say that we have all the answers, and that we are all-knowing.

Clearly we are not.

The two most prominent religions in the world are Christianity & Muslim/Islam.

Each of these would most likely be inclined to not give faith or belief to such speculations, ideas, or topics. Which I guess is rightfully so. However, the Vatican now has an observatory.

And, even in the show it is stated that one's belief in other life in the universe does not negate one's belief in God.

Nonetheless, I find it very hard to believe we are the only intelligent life in the universe. Therefore, I enjoyed this show a great deal.

Fact is...no one can say for sure there were Ancient Aliens here on Earth at one time, or that they were not. There really is not enough evidence to prove or disprove the subject matter.

In the end, it gives some things to be considered and pondered. Which is the whole point of the show in the first place.

Be careful about "Debunking" something, or you might wind up looking as silly as the person did that thought the sun orbited us.

Be careful about jumping on the band wagon of some theory that can't be proved, or you might wind up looking as silly as the person that thought the world was flat.

Just keep an open mind. Who says you have to Confirm or Deny everything? Where is that law written? Can't people be allowed to watch the show, and form their own opinions? Why all the finger pointing? You know when you point your finger at someone you got three pointing back at yourself right?

This show is great because they talk about history, myths, ancient structures, etc.

The boring part is where : "That means that is was POSSIBLY/PROBABLY extraterrestrial" ....

How is that right? Ridiculous. Some of the spokesmen are just plain ridiculous. The historical part is nice though.

Distorted logic - emanated by scientific illiterated and deranged (conspiracy theories) apprentices. Ohh...the Earth is round - that's because of the Ancient Aliens !!!

Ancient Aliens is a really good series for those with an interest in the formation of life. I am unable to place my confidence in the presence of a god, and have always sought other explanations. My belief in the existence of aliens occurred long before I saw this show. A lot of my own personal theories were mimicked by the ones given in the show, except the show actually provides solid evidence for each of their claims. Although it is highly unlikely that all of their theories are true, a lot of them are very plausible. I was mystified by all of these inexplicable events that I had never heard of before. Although so many people still have their doubts after watching, I believe a lot of their disbelief stems from their religious views which heavily contradict the views expressed by the creators of the show. I am so glad I discovered this show as it continues to amaze me.

They should have a disclaimer at the beginning...If you are an idiot, gullable, or are going to write a dumb review complaining that this is "fake science", then go ahead and switch to the science channel. People this is entertainment, not a documentary show. If you can't decipher the two, then I don't know what to tell you. Just have fun. People complaining about the show are, to me, worse than the UFO speculations themselves. Go complain about Ghost shows.