The show is scheduled after Mythbusters and I think Discovery is trying to create a two hour block of science based engineering experiments. Unfortunately they aren’t following Mythbusters example of properly designing, building, and testing the experiment before filming. Thirty minutes to design a complex engineering solution is pretty silly and just Reality show fodder. There was no time to even test the builds. Both teams needed a test to adjust their friction breaks in the first episode. Something simple like an empty box in the truck bed and braking really hard would have been a basic, nondestructive test. At least then the friction brakes could have been adjusted and “just maybe” one of the designs might have worked.
I’m not optimistic that either team will completely succeed in these engineering challenges. They’re focusing too much on the Reality show drama and not enough time to actually do the task. It’s unfortunate because this cast has some highly trained engineers that could have built some really cool stuff that actually worked. Which is why I watch Mythbusters. Seeing some half-assed untested designs fail just isn’t interesting to me.
I’ll keep watching for awhile. If it’s not a complete trainwreck I might watch the entire competition.
I didn’t know about this show until I saw some previews during Mythbusters. Then it came on and holy shit, I know one of those guys. Gui runs a huge hackerspace where I’ve taken a couple classes. Nice guy, wicked smart; I was glad he didn’t get eliminated.
Discovery wants to recreate the magic of Mythbusters, but I think they’re looking in the wrong place. I don’t know how Mythbusters got started but either they had the right formula or got lucky, but it’s largely based on having entertaining hosts and build crew. They may need to make the ‘entertaining’ part a higher priority than the ‘brainy’ part.
I feel like Discovery has been trying to recreate Mythbuster for years now and falling each time. It seems like generally they focused too much on the entertaining part and not enough on the brainy part. What was the last one called? I think it was like “Smashed” or something like that.
I didn’t see Smashed so I can’t comment. What I did see was there effort to have teams make some kind of large kinetic sculptures in a huge rush, and the results were less than impressive. Among other things I don’t see why they’re making these things into contests. Adam and Jamie may be an odd couple, but they work together well and have a huge facility they’ve created to suit their needs, and the things they do on the show are designed around those existing resources. If they want to find the magic again they need those kind of elements, and guys like Adam and Jamie who are fun to watch doing it.
Yeah, for something like this you really, really need to save some time for testing. Both teams overbuilt, IMO and no one seems to have even tried to estimate whether they had the man-hours available for their chosen build.
What’s new about this show, anyway? It’s just one of those custom-car-building contest shows but with nerds, right down to the loose cannon (Dan, is it?) who seems to have been cast solely to provide unnecessary conflict. I’ll probably continue watching it, but only because I’ll already be plunked in front of the TV watching Mythbusters.
Yep. WAAAAAY overbuilt. This is a once-only task, not something you’ll be doing repeatedly for the next 10 years. They should have given the boxes a system that was basically destroyed after use, but kept the box intact. They didn’t need to frame out such an intricate set-up for a one-time-only task.
Fill the bed of the truck with a 10’ cube of jello, problem solved :).
Yeah..I worked with one of the engineers for a few years. We used to go diving and hang out together. I still keep up with her on facebook. I really need to check out the show.
Hmm..does this mean I need to update the semi-famous facebook friend thread?
I agree with some of the comments above; it’s not all that interesting to watch the projects fail at a stage that should be the most preliminary testing. I’d rather see them have some time to make things actually work.
Weird sense of deja vu, too. In that class I took from Gui, he wanted our designs drawn life size (I was the only one who did). When it came to the fabrication stage, the guy on my team just seemed to disregard the design and build whatever he felt like. It was incredibly frustrating.
Maybe this show should be retitled The Big Brain Fart?
Geez, those designs were pretty lame this week. The air gun didn’t have remotely enough pressure to get the projectiles up high. The freeze frame showed the missile arcing over their projectiles.
Then the giant propeller just falls off. Ouch. Even if it had lifted off then how in the heck would you aim that thing?
LOL at next week. They’re supposed to design a shelter to save human lives. Yeah right. With their track record I wouldn’t trust them to build a shelter for my dog.
I’ll keep watching just for the train wreck every week. It’s not the show that I hoped for. They sure as heck aren’t Mythbusters. Jaime’s designs usually work.
It’ll be interesting to see if the builds get better after the teams get smaller. Hopefully with less people they may actually focus and work as a team. I’m hoping that’s how it works out.
It depends on who gets eliminated. They were smart not to eliminate Gui. He’s one of the better qualified engineers. His anti missile design failed but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t do really well on other builds.
On the other hand, if they eliminate the best talent early then look out. These guys might hurt themselves working in the shop.
The water cannon test on the shelters didn’t seem realistic. What kind of backpack personal shelter has any chance of surviving a water cannon? It’s like the show wants these designs to fail no matter what.
I was impressed that one teams shelter survived the wind and fire test. Good job.
The forestry service already has personal shelters like that for their firefighters. I’ve seen news reports where lives were saved.
