There is a good reason why this speculative piece of post-apocalyptic fiction from the History Channel started out as a two-hour documentary special - it's not actually a very expansive subject, really. Once you've dissected the intricate detail by which one man-made structure will gradually deteriorate before ultimately collapsing into rubble, you've pretty much covered them all. But, seeing as how the original Life After People garnered an audience of almost six million (twice the number as tuned into last week's Mad Men season premiere) and was the most watched program in the channel's history (pardon the pun) commercial pressures naturally necessitated that the idea be dragged out into an ongoing series.
Narrated somewhat dryly by James Lurie, Life After People imagines exactly that; speculating what would become of the world if human beings suddenly blinked out of existence, leaving no one to contain and/or maintain that which is left behind. Sewage would overflow into the New York Transit System, causing a deadly build-up of explosive Methane gas; the hydroelectric plants that divert water from Niagara Falls shut down, causing the water level to rise by thirteen feet; crop pests would devour tens of thousands of acres and then go extinct themselves, having become dependent on us for food.
The thing is, whether it takes a day or a millennium, pretty much everything eventually crumbles into dust, and in the end Life After People is just a bit too esoteric to maintain appeal beyond initial curiosity. To the layman, an engineering disaster is an engineering disaster, and even with these handy CliffsNotes the specifics don't really mean very much. Take, for example, the episode on artifacts, which seeks to explore the fate of various relics of religious or cultural significance. Well, unless you're either an archeologist or a monk, who really cares?
Don't get us wrong, some of it is genuinely interesting; like when they zero in on subjects off the beaten path, such as the fate of a supermarket (apparently, discounting canned goods the foodstuff that would survive for the longest time is the Twinkie!), or manufacturing plants (did you know that sugar is flammable?). But too often and too quickly the show gets off track. One minute we're talking about food and the next we're talking about architecture that was inspired by food, buildings that are shaped like food, and paintings which are of food, which is somehow not nearly as interesting.
All of the above, of course, is being kind enough to overlook the major logic hole in their (albeit, speculative) assessment. What, after all, short of divine intervention could pluck human beings from the equation and leave everything else untouched. Few natural disasters would spare the structures, and it's doubtful that a pandemic or, God forbid, a chemical weapon would kill us while failing to harm any species of plant, insect, or animal. With such an unlikely set of parameters it's hard to really invest yourself in any of the conclusions drawn from them. That tiny detail, combined with an overall presentation that faintly resembles I Am Legend, minus Will Smith and the vampires, makes it difficult to shake away the vague air of pointlessness that emanates from the whole exercise.
DVD Bonus Features
None are included.
"Life After People: The Complete Season Two" is on sale July 27, 2010 and is not rated. Documentary, Television. Written and directed by N/A. Starring James Lurie.
