Nostradamus Effect (History)

That human beings have long been preoccupied with trying to predict the future and with predictions of apocalypse is a given. NOSTRADAMUS EFFECT looks at a host of predictions about the end of the world, some of which seem eerily prescient. Most of the emphasis is on the show's namesake, Nostradamus, the 16th-century seer whose work has been used to predict all kinds of events -- including ones that haven't happened yet (like earthquakes in New York City).

If you're looking for a way to start teaching your kids the very important task of how to assess credibility, Nostradamus Effect is a fine place to start ... but then you'd have to actually watch it, and that may not be a worthwhile trade-off. Most of the talking heads featured on the show have no academic background, and much of their "proof" is based on segments of sentences in larger works that sound eerily omniscient but are in fact so vague that they could mean all kinds of things. All of which is accompanied by spooky music and effects and ominous pronouncements -- such as that the third Antichrist could be even now among us (never mind that the prophecies the show uses to prove the coming of said Antichrist were supposedly fulfilled 200 and 400 years after they were originally made).

The narration claims that that the show doesn't want to prove or refute the prophecies it examines ... but later talks about seeing if we can find the truth. And the supposed historical facts are often merely conjecture. It's nonsense like that that makes you want to throw things at your TV set.