Watch the video, it is surreal. Now the show is probably going to suck because their insurance won't let them do anything remotely interesting with explosives.
Maybe they'll have to actually focus on doing interesting things without explosives. My interest in Mythbusters faded as their excuses for blowing stuff up every week became increasingly absurd and pointless.
I agree. The earlier, lower-budget seasons of the show lead to some really clever solutions for testing things that would be unfeasible to try at full-scale. Now if they want to melt a semi truck with thermite they just buy one and do it. The target audience has really shifted.
My favorite part about the early mythbusters wasn't the science - it was the thrill of the build. To watch them having to build some weird thing, working through the possibilities, dealing with problems etc. Like the one where they tested if you could get electrocuted through an appliance in a lightning storm... they actually spent time troubleshooting the wiring in the house, and explained the problem. Now all you get is a 30 second montage before they start blowing crap up.
Absolutely! I hadn't heard it articulated as cleanly, but the "Thrill of the build" is exactly what attracted me to the show.
I enjoyed watching them try to come up with "How in the heck are we going to make this thing", along with calling car-lots, and the other stuff that they have the budget to avoid, or the producers do off-scene.
It reminded me a lot of Junkyard wars, when I first started watching it, but more authentic, since they weren't using a stocked field ;)
Stuck with Hackett still has a building things aesthetic, but it hasn't quite clicked with me.
I’m not sure whether they really are blowing up more stuff? Maybe someone should check that myth?
There were some really awful myths this year (I hated the Green Hornet show and that other show where they promoted some other stupid show on the Discovery Channel, also the Obama episode) but recent episodes have been pretty good and my subjective impression is that they have done a lot of low key myths in a big way. Also, the myths that are actually about explosions have become more sophisticated.
I have observed this also. Right now I can predict that any episode will have two "myths" that are bound to be either about explosions, cars or alcohol, with the possibility of mixins.
The myths are gone, all that's left are busters, or rather blasters.
Cheese, frozen chicken, truck with window-blades, laptop battery and phonebook armor, mixing some MOO with MEOW, snow plow rocket sleds and the list goes on and on about things with at least potential military use - heck, even white mice in case Hannibal comes around again.
That death ray was less lethal and less effective (and less spectacular) than all of those. I just don't see it.
Well - the obvious solution is to just move the explosives testing to a more remote location.
I drove past the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center outside of 29 Palms a few months ago. You could shoot a cannon ball several miles in any direction out there without hitting anything of value.
The same is true for Fort Irwin just north of there, or the Naval Weapons Center China Lake just off the 395 on the way up to Mammoth. Of course, all those pale in comparison to the vast emptyness of the 1,300+ square mile Nevada Test Range. If it's good enough to test Nuclear armaments, it's probably good enough to handle the occasional wayward cannonball. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada_National_Security_Site
Sure, none of these are as convenient to Mythbuster's HQ - but I'm sure they can fit it in their travel budget - and if one of their experiments went wayward and actually killed someone, I'm sure it'd be the end of the show.
