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Review: National Treasure, Season 1 (國家寶藏, 第一季) (2017)
This show was produced by China's CCTV, and this first season focused on promoting artifacts from each of the country's major museums.
I admit that this show was a bit dry and dragged out. The quality of episodes varied depending on the celebrity and expert guests, as well as how the show was scripted. While I did learn about some interesting artifacts, I did watch this show while doing other things because it was such a drawn out show.
I would recommend it if you are learning about history, and don't mind the propaganda elements of the show.
It can be viewed here.
This is going to be a pretty short review. I'm not going to go into the artifacts in detail but look at things from a more general perspective.
Format
The format of the show was very formulaic for the first nine episodes. The final episode was kind of a recap episode and a showcase, and I didn't pay that much attention to it.
Each episode featured three artifacts from each museum. The script would go as follows.
1) The host Zhang Guoli would tease the next artifact and celebrity guest.
2) The celebrity guest would visit the museum to see the actual artifact.
3) The celebirty guest would come to the location and briefly introduce the artifact.
4) Zhang Guoli would provide a bit more information on the artifact.
5) The celebrity guest would act in a skit.
6) Zhang Guoli and the celebrity guest would discuss the artifact a bit.
7) Zhang Guoli would ask the celebrity guest to introduce the expert guest.
8) The celebrity guest would introduce the expert guest.
9) The expert guest section was a bit less formulaic as it depended on who the expert guest was.
10) The celebrity and expert guests would take their oaths to protect the artifact in question.
I'm not surprised that I could recite the script because I'd seen it so many times. Honestly, I wasn't surprised by how formulaic the show was because it was produced by CCTV. I'd expected this show to be more educational rather than entertaining.
Content Quality
The point of the show was very much to promote cultural pride. Sometimes it was more subtle and sometimes it was very blatant. I'd learned to take everything with a grain of salt.
As a host, Zhang Guoli was fine. He did what he did best, and acted as a kindly uncle, which he was terrific at.
I found the skits to be a bit boring, especially if they were rather dragged out. The ones that I thought were more interesting were the humorous ones. For the most part, the skits tended to have only a few main points that they needed to communicate, so the humorous skits filled in the time with jokes and such, which was a better way of keeping the audience engaged, as opposed to the serious skits that could only fill the time by extending the plots. The one serious skit that left an impression was the one for Min Fanglei, where the two celebrity guests acted as two parts of the Min Fanglei that had been separated for a long time.
The celebrity guests had limited opportunities to bring their own charm in the show. This was because most of their time on screen was in the skit.
Depending on who the expert guest was, that section of the show could be very interesting or rather dull. In my opinion, the most interesting expert guests fell into two categories.
I liked the expert guests who could provide more hands-on demonstrations, such as the experts who showed us how paint could be extracted from coloured ores, the engineer who showed us how a certain airplane part was made (that was similar to an Ancient Chinese method), and the weaver who made tapestries on her loom.
The other type of expert guests that I liked were those who had a personal history with the artifact. In particular, the one who left an impression on me was the man whose family had preserved the Da Ke Ding. He told the audience of how his family, starting from his grandmother, had protected the artifact in tough times, and how it was finally reunited with its sister Ding in a museum. I thought that story was incredibly touching.
Overall
I will still watch the second season of the show despite it being kind of dry. I want to see what other artifacts the show would present. I'll probably just watch it while doing other stuff as I did find the skits and some of the expert guests a bit boring. But it's only 10 episodes long, so even if it is kind of dry, it's not the biggest time suck.
I admit that this show was a bit dry and dragged out. The quality of episodes varied depending on the celebrity and expert guests, as well as how the show was scripted. While I did learn about some interesting artifacts, I did watch this show while doing other things because it was such a drawn out show.
I would recommend it if you are learning about history, and don't mind the propaganda elements of the show.
It can be viewed here.
This is going to be a pretty short review. I'm not going to go into the artifacts in detail but look at things from a more general perspective.
Format
The format of the show was very formulaic for the first nine episodes. The final episode was kind of a recap episode and a showcase, and I didn't pay that much attention to it.
Each episode featured three artifacts from each museum. The script would go as follows.
1) The host Zhang Guoli would tease the next artifact and celebrity guest.
2) The celebrity guest would visit the museum to see the actual artifact.
3) The celebirty guest would come to the location and briefly introduce the artifact.
4) Zhang Guoli would provide a bit more information on the artifact.
5) The celebrity guest would act in a skit.
6) Zhang Guoli and the celebrity guest would discuss the artifact a bit.
7) Zhang Guoli would ask the celebrity guest to introduce the expert guest.
8) The celebrity guest would introduce the expert guest.
9) The expert guest section was a bit less formulaic as it depended on who the expert guest was.
10) The celebrity and expert guests would take their oaths to protect the artifact in question.
I'm not surprised that I could recite the script because I'd seen it so many times. Honestly, I wasn't surprised by how formulaic the show was because it was produced by CCTV. I'd expected this show to be more educational rather than entertaining.
Content Quality
The point of the show was very much to promote cultural pride. Sometimes it was more subtle and sometimes it was very blatant. I'd learned to take everything with a grain of salt.
As a host, Zhang Guoli was fine. He did what he did best, and acted as a kindly uncle, which he was terrific at.
I found the skits to be a bit boring, especially if they were rather dragged out. The ones that I thought were more interesting were the humorous ones. For the most part, the skits tended to have only a few main points that they needed to communicate, so the humorous skits filled in the time with jokes and such, which was a better way of keeping the audience engaged, as opposed to the serious skits that could only fill the time by extending the plots. The one serious skit that left an impression was the one for Min Fanglei, where the two celebrity guests acted as two parts of the Min Fanglei that had been separated for a long time.
The celebrity guests had limited opportunities to bring their own charm in the show. This was because most of their time on screen was in the skit.
Depending on who the expert guest was, that section of the show could be very interesting or rather dull. In my opinion, the most interesting expert guests fell into two categories.
I liked the expert guests who could provide more hands-on demonstrations, such as the experts who showed us how paint could be extracted from coloured ores, the engineer who showed us how a certain airplane part was made (that was similar to an Ancient Chinese method), and the weaver who made tapestries on her loom.
The other type of expert guests that I liked were those who had a personal history with the artifact. In particular, the one who left an impression on me was the man whose family had preserved the Da Ke Ding. He told the audience of how his family, starting from his grandmother, had protected the artifact in tough times, and how it was finally reunited with its sister Ding in a museum. I thought that story was incredibly touching.
Overall
I will still watch the second season of the show despite it being kind of dry. I want to see what other artifacts the show would present. I'll probably just watch it while doing other stuff as I did find the skits and some of the expert guests a bit boring. But it's only 10 episodes long, so even if it is kind of dry, it's not the biggest time suck.