TV: Fight Quest

"Marcusson! Marcusson, you were right! People are alike.... people are alike everywhere!"
- from The Twilight Zone first season episode "People Are Alike All Over"

Good television programming can break down cultural barriers, whether it's fiction (like Rod Serling's sci-fi series) or nonfiction. The latter works in a particularly simple fashion; you can nullify a lot of stereotypes and misconceptions by merely showing how other people live in another part of the world.

In the case of "Fight Quest," you watch how other people fight:



Hosts Doug Anderson and Jimmy Smith travel around the world, learning from some of the most notable practitioners of a particular martial art (in Brazil they learn jiu-jitsu from Gracie-trained black belts, for instance). In the process, they often get to see where and how a particular martial art developed. It turns out that streetfighting in the rough parts of Marseille is similar to streetfighting in the rough parts of Hong Kong - people are alike all over.

"Fight Quest" owes a lot to "Human Weapon," a show that used to air on the History Channel. What distinguishes "Fight Quest" is that the hosts seem to train harder and, as a result, they get banged up a lot more (Smith in particular seems to have perpetual leg problems). Watching the Krav Maga episode was downright painful; there's nothing like seeing someone essentially get the stuffing kicked out of them in a 5 on 1 fight. There aren't too many ways to even the odds in that situation, short of using a firearm.