Well I guess she's practicing to replace Harrison Ford?
Remember she wanted to play Indiana Jones?
shareNever heard of this show, but I just watched the trailer and it looks . . . well, like a pretty generic example of its genre, but it's a genre I have some affection for so I may check it out.
Megan Fox definitely seems like a very odd choice. I don't think her film career has been in a great place for the past few years, so my guess is that she wanted the money and exposure, and they wanted a pretty face with a name, so a deal was struck.
It's exactly what you'd expect. Kind of like those shows with Don Wildman or Josh Gates.
shareOnly worse, much worse.
Saw an episode last night, and could only conclude that she isnt bring offered any movie roles, and has to take whatever work she can get.
She said that Michael Bay was "like Hitler" on the set of Transformers, and Spielberg demanded that she immediately be fired from the franchise. It seems to have been a "scarlet letter" moment for her. Bay later re-hired her to play April O'Neil on the Ninja Turtles movies, those are the only films she's done in the last six years.
Looking at her IMDB page, it appears that she has some new stuff in production so I think she may have been given a second chance.
I actually went ahead and watched a couple of episodes last night. As you say, it's about what you'd expect in terms of its production.
I'm still scratching my head though and going, "Megan Fox?"
My guess is that they decided to copy the History Channel, who hired Zachary Quinto to host the In Search Of reboot that recently kicked off. It's a similar show.
To be fair, I guess Zach Quinto isn't really more qualified to host a show like this than she is, but he FEELS more legitimate.
I want to be fair and not sell her short. Maybe she's secretly really into history and mysteries and this is a passion project for her, but if she is, I'm not sure that it comes across on screen. Sometimes she seems into it, but at other times it seems like she is just sleepwalking through things and saying to herself, "Well, they paid me so here I am."
If she was secretly some kind of egghead, props to her yeah. But more likely, she's just slumming it. It's weird how almost 10 years ago, she was everywhere.
shareI've become strangely fascinated with this whole saga, so I did some digging and found this:
https://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/television/legends-of-the-lost-host-megan-fox-reveals-the-adventure/article_104425c3-bea6-5312-9571-b324357b175f.html
If she is to be believed, the show was her idea. I think I'm prepared to accept that. Wikipedia does list her as the show's creator as well as an executive producer, and another thing that jumped out at me was that in one of the episodes I watched, she called Graham Hancock one of her "heroes."
When I think about it, the idea of her coming up with the concept and approaching a producer is more believable to me than a producer coming up with it and then going, "Maybe we can get Megan Fox?!"
Regarding why she was everywhere a while back and then disappeared, I'm certain this has something to do with it:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/20/steven-spielberg-megan-fox-transformers
Spielberg seems like he'd be a pretty shitty enemy to have, and I think the whole episode with Bay effectively resulted in a blacklisting for a while.
She's way better at this than Quinto and it's a much better show but mostly because the new In Search Of is utter trash.
shareI thought Quinto did well as the host, but I do feel like the show was uneven at best.
Quinto was good and I also thought it had an interesting visual style, but the quality of the investigations and the information they produced was lacking.
My biggest issue with Legends of the Lost is just how generic and by-the-numbers it feels. It's not a bad show; it just fails to rise above all the similar shows that have come around over the last decade by doing something new or novel.
To be fair, I have no ideas personally about how to make such a show in a way that breaks the mold, so I guess I can't be too hard on those involved.
Having not seen this show, so cannot judge its production values, it wouldn't be surprising if this series has a remarkably low budget. If it's getting at least 2 million viewers regularly, it is making a lot of money on a high-profit margin.
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I'd love to see the ratings for the show. I have a hard time believing that it's pulling in 2 million per episode, but once you add in DVR and OnDemand numbers . . . maybe?
As for the budget, I have no idea about that either but I'd guess it's pretty comparable to all the similar shows on the market.
It doesn't look particularly low-budget in comparison to it's peers, I'll put it that way. They're gathering relevant experts and flying around the world, at least.
If it's anything like A&E's 'Duck Dynasty', which got old fast for me, then it can do good numbers without the heavy marketing needed in part to Megan Fox being so recognizable. It looks like she's taking a breather from the big screen.
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As I've mentioned in a couple of other posts above, I don't think her breather from films was her idea. But yeah, she hasn't done much at all in the last six years.
Not sure if you've seen Expedition Unknown with Josh Gates, but Legends of the Lost is similar. The focus of the show is a little different, but it's along the same lines in terms of style. Really, there have been a LOT of shows that have followed the same format, with a host venturing around the world to meet with experts and investigate some question of history or science.
While I do enjoy these kinds of shows, sometimes I feel like if you've seen one you've seen them all.
The creators have found that sweet spot to keep what works for these kind of shows. You're really following the personality of the host.
Fox really hurt her career talking nasty to Michael Bay, cornering Spielberg in the worst way possible, and effectively making reputation of being a hard person to work with in the film industry. That's a lot to try to come back from. It's just amazing how much Transformers launched her career as her name back in 2007 was next to unknown.
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Frankly, I think Spielberg overreacted. I hate this culture we live in today where everyone has to walk on eggshells because a single comment could ruin a career.
The interesting thing is that Bay later hired her back for Ninja Turtles, the only two films she has appeared in in the last six years.
She has some upcoming stuff listed on IMDB, and she also has this Travel Channel show, so it seems like she's staging a comeback.
Fascinating times, never boring.
The culture is still adjusting to all the over-proliferation of media we now all have at our finger tips. It's like the mass press and its instant, incredible reach is the new wild, wild, west that's still in need of being charted and tamed while people are still going by age-old wisdom and natural instinct, having a hard time keeping up.
If she is willing to use her talents in the best way possible and is making an effort to learn from her experiences, not blaming others for things she did wrong, then she deserves to have her career back.
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I think you're really onto something there regarding culture adjusting to media revolution. It does seem like people are being confronted by this new technology and they just don't know how to handle it.
Personally, I think that society was better off BEFORE the Internet's intrusion into the mainstream. There are some things about the Internet that I like, but if I could roll back the world to a pre-Internet time I'd probably do it.
Regarding Megan, yeah, give the girl a break. If you don't like her, then don't watch her movies. But don't be petty and say she shouldn't be allowed to work and support herself and provide entertainment for those people who do want to see her.
Your last paragraph, exactly. Nicely put.
It's not more easier than ever to know everyone's dirty laundry that it has become suffocating, ugh. (-_-)
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I just watched the first episode about female vikings. It had some interesting info, but Megan added nothing. She has no expertise, nor does she have the exuberance or energy that carries some of these kinds of shows. She is very deadpan.
Also, sadly, her heavy makeup, plastic surgery and Botox make her face look less than human.
I think you're onto something in regard to exuberance and energy. I've noticed that she seems to be off on her own wavelength. Some might say her head seems to be in the clouds. This is why I mentioned in an earlier post that I had a hard time detecting her enthusiasm level; it's just hard to say how into it she is.
But according to the link I posted in another comment, the show was her idea. So maybe she's into it, but she just doesn't have the natural personality for that to come across on screen. Still though, I'm kind of intrigued and want to see more episodes, mostly to see how she develops as a host.