Brad Meltzer's "Decoded" Takes on UFOs

Anyone see last night's episode?

I think this show gives a breath of fresh air to most of the genre I watch on cable. I especially liked the Fort Knox episode, which I'm sure was discussed on here somewhere.

I was expecting a lot more from this episode, however. They kind of did the "UFOs 101" approach, and took too much of a macro approach to the subject, including having unmarked pickup trucks run them off the boundary of Area 51. Ohhhhhhhh! (raises eyebrows, puts hands in air).

They did have some rather neat sat imagery I hadn't seen before, but I was expecting at least SOME videos from around the region.

I was also checking out Ancient Aliens last night, the underground complexes were interesting subject matter, albeit jumping to the Ancient Aliens link was far-stretched as usual. I didnt know some of those large structures existed, the wheeled wall that opened from within only was really cool!

reply to post by dtrock78


SHHHHHHH I recorded it and have not watched it yet! I hope it was good. I like some of his Decoded but I don't think he goes far enough...

Yes. There's a bunch of staring at each other after every time someone says something of importance.

What I thought was funny was the visit to Area 51 and they are chased away. Did they leave the camera man behind to film them leaving, and to also film the security guards chasing them away? Or was that just television magic?

reply to post by Hydroman


that's funny, i thought the same thing.
at least area 51 had their own version filmed on their cameras.
wouldn't want conflicting accounts.

I watched it as well, I actually like that show . Seems like they are really trying to get down to the truth on the subjects they investigate

Maybe I'm alone in this, but I hate that show. The cast doesn't offer much, if anything. I watched one of the episodes last night, and they were talking about whether or not they believe in ET's. Well, it was apparent that either they were strictly told not to say much, or they simply haven't done any research on their own.

The lady said she's never seen any good evidence. One of the guys said he saw a UFO as a kid, along with others on the side of a road, and the third guy said "if you would have told me that before the show, I would have thought you were nuts".

Really? Because his story is the same as thousands of others. No good evidence? Why the hell didn't any of them mention the Phoenix Lights, Mexico City, Washington DC in 1952, UFO's showing up at countless nuclear sites, among many others? So basically, the women admitted she's done zero research. They all have.

You can learn more by doing a quick youtube search, which apparently none of these people have done. How can anyone take this crap seriously?

"Decoded" tantalizes the audience with promises of getting to the bottom of mysteries, but it always falls flat on its face and nothing ever gets answered.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that, in the end, all his episodes pander to The Powers That Be. What they show as "proof" is usually something lame, and it never goes far enough in any one direction to answer anything other than why it continues to be on the air.

It never offends, because it never goes deep enough to discover anything, which I'm sure is hunky-dory for the milque-toast fraidy-cats at the History Channel, but I find it to be one gigantic tease, and a huge sell-out. Those three people they have who do the investigating, while Metzler talks to them by phone, reminds me of Charlie's Angels, only the acting is worse. I don't watch it anymore.

Just my six cents (adjusted for inflation).

Originally posted by FissionSurplus
"Decoded" tantalizes the audience with promises of getting to the bottom of mysteries, but it always falls flat on its face and nothing ever gets answered.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that, in the end, all his episodes pander to The Powers That Be. What they show as "proof" is usually something lame, and it never goes far enough in any one direction to answer anything other than why it continues to be on the air.

It never offends, because it never goes deep enough to discover anything, which I'm sure is hunky-dory for the milque-toast fraidy-cats at the History Channel, but I find it to be one gigantic tease, and a huge sell-out. Those three people they have who do the investigating, while Metzler talks to them by phone, reminds me of Charlie's Angels, only the acting is worse. I don't watch it anymore.

Just my six cents (adjusted for inflation).

I changed the channel due to the stupidity. It's as if they've never even looked at the subject before. yet, here they are hosting a tv show, either playing dumb, or showing us all how dumb they really are.

A number of ATS posters could make all three look like imbeciles, in a matter of minutes. The over the top reactions to the most basic of evidence is pretty mind boggling, for supposed investigators.

i watched that last night, as well.....interesting conversation with that former astronaut...and with john lear...but...definitely left you hanging...i'd like to see the outtakes from that episode

Originally posted by FissionSurplus
"Decoded" tantalizes the audience with promises of getting to the bottom of mysteries, but it always falls flat on its face and nothing ever gets answered.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that, in the end, all his episodes pander to The Powers That Be. What they show as "proof" is usually something lame, and it never goes far enough in any one direction to answer anything other than why it continues to be on the air.

They've mastered the Jesse Ventura syndrome.

reply to post by dtrock78


I've only seen 2 episodes, one was great and the other was terrible.

The great one was about DB Cooper. Many comments on this thread say they never answered anything but they came up with a pretty good story about who DB Cooper might have been.

The other episode was really lame about codes built into the statue of liberty, the woman investigator thought some of the ideas were crazy and I had to agree with her.

Based on the comments about the UFO episode I won't be watching that one. But check out the DB Cooper episode, I enjoyed that one. They never got conclusive proof, but they made a pretty convincing case.

Originally posted by dtrock78
Anyone see last night's episode?

I think this show gives a breath of fresh air to most of the genre I watch on cable. I especially liked the Fort Knox episode, which I'm sure was discussed on here somewhere.

I was expecting a lot more from this episode, however.

I did.

They really phoned that one in. I was also expecting a lot more than a one-hour long Lincoln commercial.


About the only thing I learned from the show was John Lear's background - up until then I only knew his name and that he was associated with Bob Lazar... and considered by many here to be a fake. That may or may not be, but a pretty impressive resume nonetheless.

Other than that, a complete waste of my time.

I think the show uncovers more than the Ancient Aliens show does but with that said I don't think it will last very long. I don't think Brad needs the show as they drive around in a Porsche Cayenne in at least more than one episode. Ancient Aliens has longer legs because its all twisted subjected opinions with a huge sample group so if it at all thinkable, it must be Aliens. I really think they need to change the name from Decoded to Eroded, its already a tired show.

I guess it was interesting....if you've never seen any documentaries about UFOs.

Why does every UFO show find it necessary to try to drive out to the Area 51 fence and get chased off by security?Even if you somehow managed to get up over that hill, the actual base is still like 13 miles away. It's so annoying. They're not stupid. They know what's going to happen. But still, every show plays it up like they're going to try to sneak into the base.

I agree Charizad.

The initial decision they made when tackling this subject - let's start at the basics, was flawed.

Surely, most of the audience of a frickin show based around conspiracies is going to be familiar with one of the biggest government conspircay theories out there - Roswell. For the sake of the episode, I'm sure they were told/decided not to act like they were familiar with the topic, so they could "learn" as they went along their trip throughout the show. But they were loop-sided in their approach. "Whaaaaa...what does U...F...O stand for?"
And it followed the textbook blueprint for a 1 hour show on UFOs from there. And for the record, I discount anything John Lear states anymore, the train has left the station, IMO, concerning him.

But a big HOWEVER. The show, despite its obvious Porsche, then Lincoln, sequences and the quirkiness of the three investigators (the fat professor from Jersey strikes me more as a barfly at the local watering hole), I think the way the show flows is entertaining, and I think Meltzer (who apparently calls into a morning talk show in DC regularly and is funny as hell) interjects the perfect balance of intrigue/humor.

The Fort Knox episode (is there actually gold in Fort Knox?) was awesome. I loved it. DB Cooper was great as well. So was last year's season finale when they snuck into that Skull & Bones-like cult compound in California and got arrested (lol). Im looking forward to watching the couple episodes I missed this year OnDemand since I've been working a lot lately.

reply to post by dtrock78


I enjoyed it. A lot of stuff I already knew (and I'm sure most people on here knew also).

I thought the best part was the interview with the guy who used to be a security guard at Area 51 back when the Roswell incident happened. When he said there was one hangar that only a few people had access to, but he was checking doors one night and it was open and he took a look inside...that was pretty awesome..of course it wouldve been better if he had said what he saw, but still pretty cool

Originally posted by MysticPearl
Maybe I'm alone in this, but I hate that show. The cast doesn't offer much, if anything. I watched one of the episodes last night, and they were talking about whether or not they believe in ET's. Well, it was apparent that either they were strictly told not to say much, or they simply haven't done any research on their own.

The lady said she's never seen any good evidence. One of the guys said he saw a UFO as a kid, along with others on the side of a road, and the third guy said "if you would have told me that before the show, I would have thought you were nuts".

Really? Because his story is the same as thousands of others. No good evidence? Why the hell didn't any of them mention the Phoenix Lights, Mexico City, Washington DC in 1952, UFO's showing up at countless nuclear sites, among many others? So basically, the women admitted she's done zero research. They all have.

You can learn more by doing a quick youtube search, which apparently none of these people have done. How can anyone take this crap seriously?

Which, sir, is a crucial point.

ET, UFOs, USOs, exopolitics, and the adjoining fields of study are the most important areas od academic, and should be of public, interest in our times. Yet a show as basic as this one is considered by many as entertaining.

Good God.

Imagine a TV show that takes you from the raising of a calf to the magickal creation of a football! Think of the billions of people who would turn that garbage off before it hit the first Lincoln commercial.

Yet millions in the US found this Meltzer garbage "entertaining".

The sadness and the seriousness of this state of affairs also blows right over their heads like, er, a Peyton Manning pass at short range.

Bet they know who Manning is. Do they know Dolan, Farrell, Valenda, Marrs, Howe, Sauder, Maxwell?

We're so f***ed.

I think the team including the facilitator Brad Meltzer seem pretty clueless about the topics investigated on the show. Conceptually its a great idea, they failed in their presentation of the data which is why it gets such low ratings. Rather than seeing people run around or learn stuff, they should have spent more time with experts on the topics they investigate describing the story of an item or topic of interest. 80% of the show is them walking around which of course is boring. It kind of let me down considering the topic, history channel I hope creates a new show based off the direction of this show and gets it right. Decoded? I just call it confused the show, since 99% of the time their walking around confused it seems about what they are doing or why they are there.

When they were running from the guards, that's when they cut to commercial break. Did they just outrun the guards like bandits or did they get caught and just told not to come near again? Because after that they strictly kept to filming an old guy that said he never saw anything UFO'ish and then some other boring stuff.