It's a bit lighter on facts and figures than I'd prefer and definitely too heavy on the dramatisation, but otherwise excellent. I can't help but look up all the locations on Google maps of these amazing structures and then go digging in further on Wikipedia for more detail. Hugely entertaining and educational. I recommend this show to anyone with a passing interest in modern archaeology, architecture or recent history.
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peterrichardson-055555 July 2021
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lukabogdanhodgson4 September 2020Abandoned Engineering is one to watch.
The program shows you were in the world the abandoned place is. What it was used for and back history. Some of them aren't as breathtaking to look at but then they tell us about them and that will shock you. I would definitely put this program on if you come across it as it is crazy how much is out there that well, we can't access -
KasparD11 April 2020I love this show. Beautiful places captured in great ways on camera with just enough background info.
Unfortunately this show isn't available anywhere! It was on discovery channel for some time, but unavailable online. I missed quite s lot of episodes and can't watch them.... shame! -
jfryleach27 March 2019Excellent series which takes you around the world to places you would be very lucky to see. Abandoned ships, power stations, sites of massive world war 1 and 2 guns, prisons in the most unlikely places, roads and bridges constructed decades ago and long forgotten. But more than this, each constructions raison d'être and why they fell into disrepair. The subjects are explained thoroughly by experts in their field with cinematic footage illustrating their stories. Who is aware that the Spanish built a massive railway station in Canfranc in the Pyrenees in 1928, 790 feet long - the second largest station in Europe in an art deco style - truly a grand sight - now left to rack and ruin. A real eye opener and very addictive.
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mhubbardbeale20 February 2021Really great programme, really interesting, a lot of knowledge about the history, very sad about the abandoned engineering, just to know about the history and the buildings.
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Tak0056 February 2021This is a very interesting show, however, it has one extremely annoying aspect. During the introduction to each piece of abandoned engineering to be viewed and discussed. It has these amateur dramatics where the experts put forward ridiculous scenarios as to what has occurred. It also dumbs down the discussion and treats the viewers as idiots. Otherwise it shows some very interesting subjects
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alanfisher200120 May 2022The subjects are potentially very interesting, the format is just painful. Rather than clearly explain the structure, it jumps to a series of 'experts' who have clearly never been there, but read some scripts. It takes three or four disconnected 'experts' to read the story. I know its a cheap way to do it but if you can't afford to send people there, just get one to read it out.
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martyndjr24 November 2020Some really interesting locations and curious relics. However the overly dramatic pseudo mysterious dialogue is highly irritating. There is no mystery, just fairly typical historic stories. Cut out the nonsense drama and the program would be much more watchable. That's assuming you can get past the grating 'expert' monologues!! Overall an interesting topic and visuals ruined by the assumption that theatrical presentation is required to sustain viewer interest!
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geoff-spurr8 March 2021This is a good series but could be so much better. I've bought books on ruins and abandoned buildings so I was really looking forward to the series. The stories are always interesting, some remarkable, but the style of production is so annoying, the equivalent of finger nails scratching a blackboard! I'm now at the point where I now don't bother watching. The fake suspense about the actual previous use of the building is so annoying and having studio based experts pretending they've actually been there instead of being shown a few seconds video and given information just doesn't work. The programme should stick to the local based guides who are far more effective and cut out the fake suspense.
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vnshwsff4 December 2022A great idea for a documentary series. However, the producer seems scared that it might be too intellectual or serious and so doesn't show scenes that need to be looked at for longer than a couple of seconds. In the new series (seen in Australia, November 2022) there is now an annoying way old photos are split up. The commentary of Rob Bell and others is often inane, not adding anything to an understanding of the engineering. The chosen subjects and places are great, from all around the world and over the last couple of centuries. SO, keep up on a good basis, including interesting local experts and tour-guides.
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Abandoned Engineering had the potential to be a really interesting series about historical ruins and places of interest. Unfortunately the presentation is so bad it's practically unwatchable.
There's a constant backing track of "mood music" which is usually heavy on percussion. This often drowns out the voiceover, which switches between loud and quiet depending on the scene. It's all quite distracting.
Just as bad is the input from the narrator and many of the specialists, whose vocabulary mostly consists of melodramatic comments such as "almost alien", "something bad must have happened here", and similar inanities. With the honourable exeption of Roma Agrawal, who comes over very well, the presenters are all rather odd characters. There's the one with the intent, bulgy eyes, the one with the slow, mangled syllables, the slightly awestruck American... after not very long, it just grates. Too much gee-whizzery all round, I'm afraid. -
dMaN2418 October 2022I'm not sure. But as a fan of both Mysteries of the Abandoned and Abandoned Engineering it just feels that when i have watched an episode of Mystieries of the Abandoned, 3 days later Abandoned Engineering will air..
And i have watched it? Same narrative, same points. Only difference is the talking heads being swapped out..
So who is copying who? And why?
Don't get me wrong, i do enjoy the production quality.
But it just feels rehashed.
As in being done for lazy watching.
Is it because of different networks?
It is the same material after all.
How was this even produced?
Would be nice if they could be separated somehow. -
peterspoems19 November 2021A fascinating show with one huge flaw. They don't bother to fact check, often reporting historical inaccuracies which is unacceptable. One example, they claimed that as soon as WW2 ended and Germany was divided up that the Soviet Union started fortifying the border. This is untrue. It wasn't until after people started to flee across the boarder in higher numbers that the Soviets initially made a border with barbed wire and eventually the Berlin Wall. It's a real shame that such a fantastically interesting show isn't a trustworthy source of information. I love the show, it's great but there is no excuse for reporting false history, furthermore some of their "experts" are very right wing on some issues. Academics and experts are generally rather good at impartiality when offering commentary and analysis. It's hard to tell if the factual inaccuracies are down to laziness, lack of budget or some sort of bizarre agenda. I'm guessing it's a budgetary issue, whatever the reason, it detracts from the credible experts and fascinating subject matter.
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rcoulam99929 October 2020Until 30 minutes ago, I'd have given this an 8 or a 9. Now it gets a 3 for the simple reason that it lies. In s3, e6, they state that "Today the site (La Coupole) is a ruin". It isn't - it's been a museum since 1997, and I visited it less than 4 weeks before the programme aired. The stories are fascinating enough without having to tell outright porkies. So why did they lie? Merely to justify the title? I don't know, but I 've lost my trust in this series.
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paszczak-8154925 August 2019I like the series but there is no excuse for sloppiness in engineering . Try to find the place by typing in the coordinates shown on the screen in S2 E2 at 0:12 minute of the show about One Miliion Bridge in Alaska. You did? And where did you end up? Yeah. In Russia. Why? Because it is not E cordinate but W. Small diffrence? In non engineering show maybe. For this reason - only 5 star out of 10. Anything you show on the screen should be 'verified'. That's the magic word in engineering. Big fan from Sydney, NSW.
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Watched one episode today, and it was very fascinating. It narrates about French Aerotrain project, really exciting and promising yet again nowadays. Then suddenly it went onto showing an old building in London suburbs, which appears to be an old classified bunker for a nuclear research, which indeed was even more fascinating, until the commentators showed big picture of Stalin, commenting that the first atomic bomb was dropped by him on Hiroshima.. WTF???? Are we twisting the history as we see fit now? Not a huge Stalin's fan at all, but let's stick to the facts though, right?