I enjoy Modern Marvels, but it jumped the shark years ago. But this episode about football fans partying in a parking lot is the most ridiculous one I have ever heard of.
What episode made your realize that* Modern Marvels* was about neither?
I haven’t seen the tailgating one. But I thought Modern Marvels jumped the shark years ago when most of the episodes were basically hour-long commercials for various companies or businesses. Like the one on truck stops, or supermarkets, or mega stores, or almost any of the ones on food.
I noticed they had one this weekend on vending machine tech.
The problem is that there are only so many Eiffel Tower or Hoover Dam or Empire State Building-type structures that are genuine engineering wonders that they can do shows on. After you’ve been on so many years, your pool of “marvels” starts getting pretty shallow. It’d be nice, though, if they threw an occasional old school episode into the rotation. The only ones I ever see these days have to do with stuff like convenience stores, car washes and lawncare tech.
Judging by that link, it looked like January 0f 2010 was a golden age for Modern Marvels. The four episodes they premiered that month were: Night; Dirt; Eggs; The Potato.
Wait, what? Yeah, I get that they’ve run out of Eiffel Towers. But at least do some other skyscrapers or bridges or whatever. I mean, back when jousting was the hot sport of the day, I’m sure there were peasants who partied in the backs of their hay wagons before the match. And dirt, of all things? That stuff’s as old as dirt!
Has there been a Modern Marvel on sex toys yet?
Yep. Season 8, episode 45 Modern Marvels - High Tech Sex - TheTVDB.com
I will say one thing about Modern Marvels, they may have run out of ideas, but they haven’t completely lost it. “Dirt” wasn’t all that bad, actually. It takes some very large and very modern machines to move a segment of earth from A to B. The show is grasping for ideas, but at least their not looking for Bigfoot or Aliens.
I don’t think it was MM but there was recently a discovery type channel about building a giant geodesic dome over Houston. It was a hypothetical but the entire idea sounded pretty dumb to me. Granted I did watch it, mostly out of disbelief.
“We’re not here for the game. The game is nothing. The game is crap. The game makes me sick. The real reason we Americans put up with sports is for this: Behold, the tailgate party. The pinnacle of human achievement. Since the dawn of parking lots, man has sought to fill his gut with food and alcohol in anticipation of watching others exercise.”
Words to live by.
Heh. That one was on this week. No matter how marvelous they might find it, I have it on good authority that dirt predates the “modern” era.
so does the source of all the materials that made everything featured on the show.
eggs and taters aren’t new either.
i don’t have cable so i don’t see it much and haven’t seen recent ones. i think it is a mostly entertaining and sometimes informative show. the intro sucks though.