If this show were a more-or-less "straight" presentation of the material, I'd give it a 9 or 10. The problem isn't with the content, it's with the tone and treatment of the material.
The first season is the best, with Keith Carradine (the white sheep of his family) hosting. Though bad jokes abound, he delivers them in a sufficiently sober manner to keep them from being unduly annoying.
WWT went precipitously downhill when David took over the hosting. His snarky/smarmy tone is annoying, and sometimes in quite bad taste. The producers also seem to be running out of ideas. And many of the explanations of 19th-century technology are incomplete, misleading, or even incorrect.
Here are two bits of technology the show missed: Cowboys often put silver dollars in their canteens to keep the water fresh. (Silver is a bactericide.) And canned tomatoes were used not only for food, but for water. Carrying a can or two provided fresh water when needed.
As other reviewers have noted, WWT would never receive an E|I badge. The subject matter is sometimes adult, and there's a lot of violence. Nevertheless, WWT is worth seeing, if only because it shows how "primitive" technology worked.
The first season is the best, with Keith Carradine (the white sheep of his family) hosting. Though bad jokes abound, he delivers them in a sufficiently sober manner to keep them from being unduly annoying.
WWT went precipitously downhill when David took over the hosting. His snarky/smarmy tone is annoying, and sometimes in quite bad taste. The producers also seem to be running out of ideas. And many of the explanations of 19th-century technology are incomplete, misleading, or even incorrect.
Here are two bits of technology the show missed: Cowboys often put silver dollars in their canteens to keep the water fresh. (Silver is a bactericide.) And canned tomatoes were used not only for food, but for water. Carrying a can or two provided fresh water when needed.
As other reviewers have noted, WWT would never receive an E|I badge. The subject matter is sometimes adult, and there's a lot of violence. Nevertheless, WWT is worth seeing, if only because it shows how "primitive" technology worked.