Ancient Aliens season 16


"In mythology, giants did exist...what we are missing is the bones of the giants."    - Erich von Daniken


release year: 2020-2021
genre: TV documentary (10 episodes)
viewing setting: home streaming 2/23-26/26

synopsis: Aliens might have been involved in our world's history, as can be seen if you look at all the various potential evidence.

impressions: Season 16 is yet more of the same: unusual places, unexplained mysteries, weird ideas...and people who want to connect it all and tie it to aliens. Previously, I've discussed the far-from-perfect logic that they often use to reach their conclusions; nothing's changed. Aside from the quote above, there were other examples, such as
  • (one sentence starting with "What if there are..." and the very next statement starting with "There definitely are..." - speaking about the same subject.)
  • The prevalence of things shaped like keyholes was noted as evidence of a greater power...but it seems to me that it's a fairly common shape that any child might draw, given enough time to doodle. (It would be different if we were talking about, say, 17-sided polygons.)
  • Use of the following transitive thinking process: ancient people say the gods told them something...we theorists say that "gods" means "aliens"...therefore, aliens were present with the ancient people (and as a bonus, those who disagree are simply being arrogant.)
  • Someone says this about footage of unknown moving lights: "...clearly performing the way these UFOs are supposedly able to perform." Think for a moment about the logic structure in that phrase.
  • Someone says "I have first-hand knowledge" about something that happened in the 1940s. No. No, you don't have first-hand knowledge because you WEREN'T FUCKING THERE at the time.

    • During the watching of this season, I discovered someone who's even more skeptical of the talking heads' logic than I am: Jason Colavito. His blog posts about specific episodes of this show may offer further insight.
    One interesting episode was #6, in which seven of the regulars must deal with William Shatner. He is almost the voice of the skeptic, asking good questions and pointing out when conjecture differs from actual fact. That episode also features three video calls with other regulars, plus a large, paneled conference room that I'm going to call the "talking headquarters."

    Now having said that...I do believe that something strange is going on (or did before) at many of the places they discuss in this show, and that those things are worth looking into further. I just can't accept some of the logic and reasoning they use to try and put it all together. Especially when they use approaches such as the Gish Gallop to present their thinking. One thing I absolutely agree with is the idea that to ancient people, any technology would have seemed like magic and so that's how they'd document what they saw. At any rate, this 15th season contained the following episodes/topics (the boldfaced ones were those I found most enjoyable and least insane) :
    episode 1: the significance of the number 12
    episode 2: connections between aliens and Tibet
    episode 3: the significance of things shaped like keyholes
    episode 4: evidence of the existence of giants
    episode 5: the Book of Enoch
    episode 6: the talking heads attempt to convince William Shatner
    episode 7: overly-technological items and artifacts
    episode 8: various astronauts' experiences with UFOs
    episode 9: discussion of the early UFO enthusiasts, and how this show has helped
    episode 10: sounds, and their significance

    acting: The narration is strong and consistent, and the interviews are usually interesting and entertaining. I have to stress that "entertaining" does not always equal "credible."

    final word: Some interesting subjects and ideas - some of which could be true, depending on how one proceeds.

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