I loved MythBusters early on, but I haven't been able to stand watching the show for several years, save for the occasional episode. You know the drill: the heavy editing, the grating narrator, the scripted conversations, the sponsored "myths", the filler explosions.
The fun for me was always in seeing Adam and Jamie doing the actual research and building in order to test a myth. I liked being able to follow their thinking process. They would sometimes run into dead ends before even getting to the building stage, forcing them to rethink their approach. That gives a better picture of what science and engineering really is like, too. I suppose there's always been some scripting and editing, and the early seasons were flawed in other ways, but it definitely seemed to be a lot more genuine early on.
It's not about an entertainment tradeoff for me, as I simply don't find the current show format entertaining. But then, I guess I'm just not in the show's target audience anymore. I can accept that. Some good news, though, is that Adam and Jamie have started a website [1] where they (primarily Adam) show off builds and gadgets, without the shackles of the TV show format. For example, [2] is a video in which Adam Savage explains a tool stand for 14 minutes, which I honestly found more entertaining and interesting than any MythBusters episode I can remember seeing recently. I like seeing the nuts and bolts of their builds and experiments, quite literally.
I hope the final season ends on a high note. All things considered, it's been a good run, and the team behind MythBusters deserve a huge amount of credit for what they've done.
[1] http://www.tested.com/
[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQAYfGxsPE
The fun for me was always in seeing Adam and Jamie doing the actual research and building in order to test a myth. I liked being able to follow their thinking process. They would sometimes run into dead ends before even getting to the building stage, forcing them to rethink their approach. That gives a better picture of what science and engineering really is like, too. I suppose there's always been some scripting and editing, and the early seasons were flawed in other ways, but it definitely seemed to be a lot more genuine early on.
It's not about an entertainment tradeoff for me, as I simply don't find the current show format entertaining. But then, I guess I'm just not in the show's target audience anymore. I can accept that. Some good news, though, is that Adam and Jamie have started a website [1] where they (primarily Adam) show off builds and gadgets, without the shackles of the TV show format. For example, [2] is a video in which Adam Savage explains a tool stand for 14 minutes, which I honestly found more entertaining and interesting than any MythBusters episode I can remember seeing recently. I like seeing the nuts and bolts of their builds and experiments, quite literally.
I hope the final season ends on a high note. All things considered, it's been a good run, and the team behind MythBusters deserve a huge amount of credit for what they've done.
[1] http://www.tested.com/ [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQAYfGxsPE