A blog about television by TIME’s TV critic James Poniewozik.

The Morning After: The (Natural) History Channel

So at this point we've all accepted that the History Channel has a rather, shall we say, broad definition of its mission. Basically, if it happened, it's history. Or if it might happen. Or if it's happening now.

Or, in the case of last night's debut, Jurassic Fight Club, if it may or may not have happened 70 million years ago, but we got some scientists to say it might have and you can't prove it one way or another, so there. I watched the screener of the first episode, which speculated, based on fossil remains, what transpired in a fight between two carnivorous dinosaurs, neither of whom was Hitler. And whether it could be classified as history or not—whether it could, in fact, be classified as science at all or not—I had to admire the lengths that it went to in order to provide a scholarly fig leaf of an excuse to watch two gigantic reptiles knock the crap out of each other for an hour.

The channel's been advertising the hell out of this show, and cable audiences do like their CGI raptors, so I'm expecting good ratings. Did any Tuned Inlanders watch?

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