Mysteries at the Castle (2014– ) User Reviews (2)

Good, and hopefully will get better

[Franklie · 7/10 · 9 March 2015]

The stories move along quickly, which is a huge relief. So many documentary type shows drag and repeat and drag and repeat.

The negative to this show is that there is more film used on the fake than the real. We tuned in to see the actual places and they didn't show them much. Instead we get the reenactors in barely lit rooms. A mocking drinking game could be made out of the number of times you see an actor look "meaningfully" at the camera. We'd much rather see more and longer shots of film/photos/paintings of the actual buildings and environs and people and things that the stories are about. And there's no need to show the narrators more than once.

We enjoy listening to the stories though and hope they continue.

Dubious at times, Interesting at others

[trevor-mcinsley · 7/10 · 19 June 2014]

Once you get over the ludicrously over the top narration which just plagues US documentaries and the fact that it keeps recapping the same information over and over... it was ultimately interesting.

I pretty much would have just left it that however I felt I had to leave this review just to vent my annoyance at an absolutely ridiculous statement that just came out of the blue at the end of the first episode. They basically just went out on a total limb and declared that ESP (Extra Sensory Perception AKA: I think I am a psychic because I have an overly inflamed ego and a low intellect) was a real thing. They claimed that the owner of one of the castles* had proved it was real without giving any evidence to support this outrageous claim. That annoyed me.

Oh and also the bit about George Herbert's dog dying at the exact same time as him. Obviously that is just complete nonsense which the media at the time likely just conjured to sell papers. The notion that they would have accurately noted down the time of death of George Herbert in Cairo and his dog in England and then accounted for the time difference is pretty ludicrous. Yet the programme didn't say 'legend' has it and just presented this spurious piece of information as a fact. Also seemed to end that piece with the idea that the curse was indeed real.

*The title is rather misleading. The majority of the buildings featured are stately homes or mansions. More akin to a palace than a castle, the definition for which would imply a defensive purpose. Whilst the programme was interesting it was quite distant to what I expected it to be about with most of the events taking place in modern times in what are essentially just very lavish homes for the super rich.