TV Reviews : It’s Dull Sailing on ‘First Americans’

Like a woebegone ship that misses its departure date by a few weeks, “Search for the First Americans” sails into port late, failing to take advantage of its natural connection to Columbus Day.

A “Nova” installment airing at 8 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPBS-TV Channel 15, and at 7 on KVCR-TV Channel 24, the documentary probes the mystery of who exactly were the ancestors of the American Indians waiting on the shore for Mr. C to disembark and “discover” them.

Generations of archeologists have figured that Siberian big-game hunters migrated from Asia to North America about 12,000 years ago, eventually migrating to the tip of South America. “Search” makes a decent, albeit somewhat slight case that the continent--like the rest of the world, including isolated Australia--was actually inhabited about 40,000 years ago.

The problem: Keeping us awake while the evidence is produced.

Despite solid production values and informative narration, “Search” never manages to completely snag our attention. Writer-producer Simon Campbell-Jones only gets part of the blame--there simply isn’t a compelling issue at stake here. Even the scientists involved don’t seem that passionate about it. There are some intriguing clues to back up the hypothesis--genetic research, diversity of languages and a handful of exploratory digs ranging from Brazil to Pennsylvania that produce artifacts that date back much further. But it remains a subject primarily of interest to anthropology and archeology buffs.