STUDIO: A&E Home Video
MSRP: $35.99
RATED: PG
RUNNING TIME: 611 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Behind-the-scenes featurette
The Pitch
In search of monsters we’ve been looking for since In Search Of…
The Monsters
The American Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch, Flying Rod Things, Russian Ape Men, Giant squids, etc.
The Nutshell
Monster Quest is the A&E documentary-style series that puts modern technology and scientific method into the hunt for cryptozoological oddities: mythical creatures that have thus far eluded definitive public proof of their existence. Among the monsters being sought out are Champ, the fabled version of the Loch Ness Monster said to dwell in Lake Champlain; Sasquatch, in a rugged region of Canadian wilderness near Ottawa; giant squids in the Sea of Cortez; a Skunk Ape and giant killer fish among others.
The camera crew in this plane went looking for a Predator. We’re still waiting to hear back from them…
The Lowdown
The first time I tried to watch Monster Quest was on a lazy Sunday recently and I fell asleep. I immediately woke up and resumed watching…and fell asleep again. That pretty much set the tone for me for the majority of the episodes I watched of this show, which, at its core, is basically a rehashing of the 1970s / 1980s TV show, In Search Of. Now I’m old enough to remember the show, if not exactly what I saw when I watched it. But I do remember that at times it was pretty creepy and both Rod Serling and Leonard Nimoy lended the vocal heft necessary to establish the occasional air of dread and mystery.
Incidents of sighting Britney Spears’ unshaved bush in paparazzi photos have been spreading like wildfire…
Monster Quest is a modern re-envisioning of the premise of that show. It’s well-made, with state of the art camera work and testimony from very reputable sources in the scientific and lay communities. But at the end of the day, it leaves you with a sense of either “been there, done that” or just a feeling of incompleteness because it basically raises as many questions as it tries to answer. A few of the monsters that they go after are legends that have been hammered into the ground for decades: Bigfoot, or Champ, the American Loch Ness Monster for instance. Subjects of debate for most of the 20th Century with little to no hope of concrete resolution. Photos and video are presented, opinions from opposing sides are also put forth, with the ultimate resolution being a big figurative shrug as to whether or not they exist.
This is either Bigfoot or Rosie O’Donnell was out for her morning constitutional again.
Admittedly, the show does go into new territory for some of these more tired subjects, like when they manage to gather DNA and tissue samples from a supposed Sasquatch attack in Canada. The results, however? Inconclusive. It’s when the show goes after new subjects of study that it’s at its most interesting. These include looking for giant squids and possibly the most mysterious entities they study: the flying rods that are either UFOs, some government experiment, or cylindrical creatures that fly so fast, they can’t be seen with the naked eye. But overall, there’s almost always more unanswered than not, which is akin to getting a case of genre blue balls.
Not sure what the big deal is. I had this for dinner a few months back at the corner Chinese joint.
Nevertheless, if you enjoy just the subject of these animal kingdom oddities, myths and legends, then you should like this show. If you’re looking for answers, though, you might be waiting a while.
The Package
The packaging for this offering is actually pretty nice in that it’s a metal tin that’s not too cumbersome. The episodes themselves look fantastic. They have high quality video and also employ night and thermal imagery at times. Sound is also suitable in Dolby Digital. The only special feature is a behind the scenes featurette.
“Oh my god! Is that – “
“Yes, I believe it is. But it can’t be. They’re not supposed to exist!”
“But It IS! An Iraqi weapon of mass destruction!”