I’ve never been that into what would be considered “traditional TV”. Apart from how obnoxious and obtrusive ads on television are, I could never really get into the content. Television, in my opinion, has become entirely too over-produced and predictable, especially when it comes to catching the interest of a younger viewership. So, naturally, I wanted to seek out an alternative type of television, and along came YouTube. There is a genre on YouTube that has always fascinated me, and that is the Abandoned and Exploration video genre.

Coining the term “Urban Explorers”, these YouTubers take their camera equipment into abandoned or off-limits areas and explore, as the genre name would suggest. The videos of the exploration themselves play out a like a travel vlog, which is entertaining in itself. But the more produced and scripted videos take more of a documentary vibe, explaining the reason why the areas are abandoned.

You would never find this kind of low-production kind of content on television. A lot of these content creators/ urban explorers/ what have you, are completely self-funded, or crowd funded by their fans. These creators aren’t held back by any kind of sponsors, producers, labels, or anything like that. When I say “low-production”, don’t confuse it with “low-quality”. The video quality is phenomenal, especially for one to five man teams. The audio is generally fantastic, too, with very little pops or spikes throughout.

If you’re interested in checking out some of these channels, I recommend “Exploring With Josh” for more of the exploration itself and “Bright Sun Films” for the documentary-style videos. Here are two of my favorites, one from each channel respectively. Alternatively, if you want something with a higher production quality, you can check out the Viceland "Abandoned" series- but I personally recommend the more independent videos as they suit my tastes better.

Exploring With Josh- Abandoned Contaminated School