Treasure Hunters Need a Real Dose of Americana

BEWARE: HISTORY-BASED RANT AHEAD!

I'm not one for getting too addicted to TV show... one will come along every once in a while that I love but even then, it's not like I have to watch it NOW (Thank you, TiVo). The X-Files and Lost are the two most recent examples (See? Two shows in the past 10 years).

But recently I've been watching NBC's Treasure Hunters and getting into the search for whatever this treasure may be. It's been neat to watch the show weave its way around the country (and, in the last episode, through parts of France and Britain). And it's also fun to watch them solve the puzzles while you sit there and agonize at their not seeing what's right in front of them.

However... I'm getting very disappointed at this group of people because they don't seem to have even the FIRST bit of knowledge about this country's history sometimes!

Example: last episode, the clue they found was a mask of a person, and they were told it was a foreigner who had a lot to offer the continental army under Washington. I was torn for a while as to whether they were referring to the Marquis de Lafayette or Casimir Pulaski, both of whom were Europeans that offered their services to the Father of our Country during the Revolutionary War.

What disturbed the HELL out of me, though, was that no one in the Treasure Hunters group even had a theory about who the person might be, even when they knew their next stop was Paris, France! In fact, on the show's website they had some "behind the scenes" video of the show, and one of the contestants (who is an Air Force officer) explained to the camera that they were looking for the statue of Lafayette, "even though they weren't sure who he was!"

When even the officers who are defending our country don't know our history, what hope is there for the rest of the country? The lack of knowledge about this country's history among the general populace makes me sick.

I'll continue watching the show, because it's fun to see how much SMARTER I am than the folks who are taking part, and because it's neat to see all the puzzles. But at this point, I don't care who wins because they're all losers.