Autumn Color

I'm getting some more channels via my antennae and discovered a show called Forged in Fire.   It's a competition between four amateur blacksmiths to make specified knives and swords.  I knew nothing about forging steel so everything they did was a learning experience for me.  Lots of fire, smoke, noise, and heavily muscled guys pounding on anvils.  What's not to like!   Wondered why PBS hadn't picked up this show - it beats the heck out of the recipe competition they had resorted to this summer.  The episode on making a German Messerschmitt sword and dagger explained why PBS might have given it a pass.  Working w/ various metals, getting the heft correct, putting on a sharp edge, fashioning a hilt was all engaging TV.  They even threw in the history of how these blades were used - a bit graphic w/ blood splattered across the screen for emphasis - but the battles described in the Iliad were far worse.  As the show progressed, it came down to testing the finalist's blades. The test set for the Messerschmitt blade was to cut through a body.  Now I'm all for bacon and I know where it comes from, but seeing large pink pig carcasses hanging  in a studio w/ their little hoofs splayed out was jarring.  A judge picked up a blade hacked a little at one pig before severing the carcass in half w/ one swipe; the head thunking to the stage floor.  I changed channels.   Fortunately, PBS is airing new murder mysteries this month.  Plenty of dead bodies and I'm positive not a one was ever real.