![]() There’s no better example of this than a smith dripping sweat as he works his hunk of metal in the blazing-hot forge and then hammers it against an anvil just so. ![]() The former is often said to care more for things that are handmade by artisans. What fascinates me most about the show, beyond the idea that there’s enough working bladesmiths in the United States for this to be in its fourth season (though some have been recycled as “fan favorites”), is that “Forged in Fire” simultaneously attempts to occupy a space for both millennials and boomers. (This may or may not happen to me a lot.) And the hour-long episodes, often stacked in consecutive blocks late at night, are easily digestible, meaning you’ll look up after knocking out a few and realize it’s 1 a.m. The quick cut in the midst of a tense moment suddenly makes the viewer care enough to sit through a break to find out if a guy will be able to finish the handle on his bowie knife with only 10 minutes left on the clock. The “Assassin’s Creed” series seems like a popular example.Īs with so many other contest-based reality shows, “Forged in Fire” sets the easy-and easy to fall for-traps of cutting to commercials just as the drama is heightening. To get through to the kids, Willis will also cite a video game a weapon is used in when applicable. Judge Doug Marcaida, “an edged weapon combat specialist who also designs some of the world’s deadliest blades,” according to History, will tell successful contestants, with a smile and audible satisfaction, “This will keel.” So many contestants revere Marcaida, and they get pretty pumped whenever they hear him say that magic phrase about a weapon they’ve made.Ī common gripe with History Channel is that the programming lacks, well, history, but this is remedied in the final challenge, when the two remaining smiths are tasked with returning to their home forges to recreate a centuries-old battle weapon, the history and design of which Willis describes. ![]() ![]() It really gets wild during the kill test, when the blades are used to whack and stab a ballistics dummy, drawing a gush of colored goo. Shit is getting sliced, rock the fuck on. When not shot in slow motion, these scenes are accompanied by generic-sounding metal guitar. While this is all happening, hunky-bro host Wil Willis solicits commentary from the panel of judges, all experts related to bladesmithing and/or weaponry, to explain a certain technique or tut-tut when someone has fallen woefully behind.īut the best part comes when the judges test the strength of these weapons and weapons-in-progress by bashing the shit out of them against wood, ice, or some other material, and the edge by slicing meat hunks, large fish, pigs, sandbags, bamboo, and just about anything else that can be cut. Much of the show is dedicated to how these dudes-and it’s almost all dudes-take steel, sometimes with the added gimmick of it being a piece of cable or a tool, like a wrench, or yanked from a busted-up old car, heat it in the forge, and hammer, press, and grind the glowing-red metal into a razor-sharp tool-all in several hours spread over two rounds. This revelation comes via “Forged in Fire,” History Channel’s competitive reality show in which bladesmiths try to make the sharpest and strongest dagger, hunting knife, sword, or some other cutting weapon. ![]() Baltimore Sun eNewspaper Home Page Close Menuįew things are as satisfying as a slow-motion shot of a bladed weapon cutting through a hanging pig carcass-the scccclk sound that comes as steel carves through flesh. ![]()
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