Whatever the genesis, the show is definitely a unique twist on history, travel, and sports programming, and certainly a welcome reprieve from the usual fare of the History Channel.
The idea is simple enough--your hosts (Jason Chambers, a mixed martial artist & Bill Duff, former wrestler and pro footballer) travel the world, with each episode dedicated to a particular fight discipline unique to a certain region of the world. The first episode, for example, had them in Thailand, learning about muay thai*, which I know from other martial arts programs, is one of the deadliest of them all, if not properly regulated (a knee to the chest can stop your heart, after all). So Jason and Bill travel Thailand, interviewing various masters of different segments of muay thai, train with these folks for a few weeks, and then one of them gets in the ring with a skilled practioner of that art.
I've also seen the episode on Phillipine Stick Fighting, or Eskrima, which featured Jason getting one of his fingers broken, maybe.
What makes the show so entertaining is that while both of these guys are clearly good fighters (Jason having the upperhand in terms of number of different skills in his arsenal, Bill being just a big tough scary dude) they are also very Western, and having them travel the backwoods of Asian countries to find local masters makes for some interesting moments. These guys are not Bear Grylls or Les Stroud, and they are often put in situations that they find uncomfortable and that they have no easy answer to. And they are often getting their asses kicked. If you dislike white dudes who say things like, "Dude, I know Karate" as much as I do, you will enjoy watching this show.
From what I've seen each episode will dedicate some time to the legends/history of the origin of the general fighting technique, and then some unique regional moves within each discipline, some that will work within a modern fighting ring, some that won't.
Regardless, much praise for The History Channel coming up with [gasp!] a novel concept, and a damn cool one at that. Oh, and since the folks at the History Channel aren't complete idiots; they've allowed a ton of preview videos up at YouTube. Here's one:
*Tony Jaa is the Jackie Chan of Muay Thai. If you enjoy martial arts films, and haven't seen either Ong-Bak or The Protector, get thee to a rental store/website post-haste.
2 comments:
maybe history channel will learn to not release new shows during shark week.
Also, Bear Grylls stays in hotels with his camera crew. Les Stroud lives under two palm leaves and a tin can he found by himself. Advantage: Stroud.
If you take Jhoon Rhee self-defense,
then you too can say:
Nobody bothers me!
Nobody bothers me!
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