Archaeology has always had a patina of glamour that most other "ologies" would give their left test tube for. From the real life Howard "King Tut" Carter to the protruding pixels of Lara Croft, the combination of mystery and treasure has managed to sell books, cinema tickets and university courses for decades.
I kind of missed the leadup to this series. The comments at the link by people who have supposedly watched it are a good read. I gather a lot of forensic people have a high old time cringing at CSI in similar fashion.
UPDATE: "Of course, the downside of all this is that you can’t believe any of these people are archaeologists"