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Disappointing History Channel show that takes a look at legendary and not-so-legendary things that go bump in the night.

Remember back when the History Channel produced programming dealing with actual history? Granted, 90% of it was about Hitler and World War II, but at least it fit the channel’s name. These days, as with just about any specialty channel, there are no rules, and thus we get shows from the History Channel like this one. Monster Quest is somewhat interesting, but where can it really go after this first season?

I decided to give this show a try, as I’m a casual fan of cryptozoology. Delving into the history of legendary creatures should be fun, right? Well, it might be, except that isn’t exactly the focus of this show. Thirteen episodes comprise season one, each one directed at a unique myth or legend or…well, sometimes they’re kind of stupid.

We get no less than three episodes devoted to various sasquatch and bigfoot creatures, as well as a creature in the U.S. Resembling the Loch Ness Monster. That’s all well and good, but then some episodes go off into left field. One is about Russia’s attempts to breed human/ape hybrids. Another is about mutant dogs.

Mutant dogs, folks.

The most head-scratching episode is titled “Unidentified Flying Creatures” and deals with little streaks of…something…that sometime appear in videos and photographs. Now, all this is well and good if the show focused on the history and backstory of these phenomena. Instead, they’re mostly the crew trying to set up ways to catch video evidence of the beings for the show, or prove/disprove the ability for them to exist. Kind of boring.

In the Unsolved Mysteries vein, these are done in the cheapest possible way and come off amateurish. Sure, they aren’t as silly as the old In Search Of series, but they just don’t have the quality to keep them interesting. Killer commie ape-men? Seriously?

The four-disc set is contained in a really nice collector’s tin, so there’s that at least. And there are interesting moments in some of the episodes that focus on things like giant squid, but overall I see a missed opportunity here. A more serious approach focusing on truly interesting creatures like the Jersey Devil or the Dover Demon or even Mothman would have been fun to watch. Instead we get a show about escaped lions prowling smalltown USA and the discovery of the remains of a “real Hobbit.”

Monster Quest has a lot of potential, but it needs to shake the freshman problems it has with this season. Hopefully, season two will feature more truly interesting episodes.

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