I understand your point of view. It is possible that the representation of the effect of the volcanic ash on the windscreen made it obvious to the viewers of the program that it was something in the atmosphere causing the problem. In the program it looked like what you see when driving fast in a snow storm, so that is why I immediately thought they should change course or drop beneath it. Maybe in the real event the crew didn't think it was in the atmosphere.
Also, the program does tend to drag out these incidents in minute detail making it appear that a lot of time is passing, but I was certainly getting quite agitated while they kept on flying straight into this stuff. I know it was only a program, but the effects shown were quite dramatic and I was getting quite absorbed by the program, and keen to find out what could be causing the problem.
And then when the cause was stated as a cloud of volcanic ash, I thought if they'd just changed course or height sooner, the problem may not have been so bad. It was as if the crew were mesmerised by the weird effects and more keen to determine the cause of them than to try to fly around it.