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Procrastinating studying--can't you tell
Jun. 26th, 2013 11:03 amI've been slowly working my way through old Mythbusters eps on iTunes. I'd already watched all the collections and lots of reruns, but there are a bunch of episodes that were never released in collections and are never aired.
Now that I see them, I know why. Because they are ENORMOUS FAILURES. You know "Lead Balloon," which they re-air all the time and Adam still cites as his favorite Mythbuster moment? They had previously done a similar build, "Helium Raft," that failed spectacularly. I just watched an episode, "22,000 Feet," that starts out with Adam saying, "this is the biggest Mythbuster build ever!" And since I'd never seen the episode before, I knew it was going to go tits up. And boy, yeah, it did.
I kind of love these eps, though. Any episode where someone yells, "Holy shit! RUN!!!" is one of my favorites. Comparing the early seasons to the current, it's not even the same show. In early seasons, they're always referencing time constraints and budget. A huge amount of screen time is spent on them making ballistics gel. Almost every episode, they have to mock up a wind tunnel or a g-force meter cause they can't afford a real one.
Now, they have access to all of that stuff. I just watched an episode ("Hypermiling") where Grant had a trunk full of high-tech equipment to take readings. Compare this to the first season episode where they determined if adding sugar to an engine did anything to it by...listening to it.
The better equipment means better science...but a lot of the fun of watching Mythbusters for me was watching them come up with ingenious solutions to difficult problems. Now that they have a ton of resources, you see less of that.
Also, re the last episode, "Duct Tape Canyon"--I hate this genre of episode. They're turning the show into a survival show. That wasn't science, and science is what I'm here for. Remember how they used to have, "Warning: Science Content" labels? When was the last time they've even used that?
Now that I see them, I know why. Because they are ENORMOUS FAILURES. You know "Lead Balloon," which they re-air all the time and Adam still cites as his favorite Mythbuster moment? They had previously done a similar build, "Helium Raft," that failed spectacularly. I just watched an episode, "22,000 Feet," that starts out with Adam saying, "this is the biggest Mythbuster build ever!" And since I'd never seen the episode before, I knew it was going to go tits up. And boy, yeah, it did.
I kind of love these eps, though. Any episode where someone yells, "Holy shit! RUN!!!" is one of my favorites. Comparing the early seasons to the current, it's not even the same show. In early seasons, they're always referencing time constraints and budget. A huge amount of screen time is spent on them making ballistics gel. Almost every episode, they have to mock up a wind tunnel or a g-force meter cause they can't afford a real one.
Now, they have access to all of that stuff. I just watched an episode ("Hypermiling") where Grant had a trunk full of high-tech equipment to take readings. Compare this to the first season episode where they determined if adding sugar to an engine did anything to it by...listening to it.
The better equipment means better science...but a lot of the fun of watching Mythbusters for me was watching them come up with ingenious solutions to difficult problems. Now that they have a ton of resources, you see less of that.
Also, re the last episode, "Duct Tape Canyon"--I hate this genre of episode. They're turning the show into a survival show. That wasn't science, and science is what I'm here for. Remember how they used to have, "Warning: Science Content" labels? When was the last time they've even used that?