Mythbusters - General Discussion

[CoderLady]

This probably is the beginning of the end, but if it means the show concentrates on scientifically debunking actual myths instead of wasting time trying to recreate movie action scenes in real life and surprise! failing, I'm all for it.

 

And I can do with their spending less time trying to debunk fakey clickbait videos they find on YouTube.

Edited August 23, 2014 by CoderLady

[riley702]

Come over to the episode thread, where we've been discussing it since the episode aired.

[MichaelaRae]

I am genuinely shocked. No spoilers infiltrated so the end of the show floored me. I'll miss Kari, Tory and Grant, but at the same time I kind of love the idea of them spending more time on the science of the "myth bust" as they did in earlier seasons. Still, it was surprisingly painful to watch Adam and Jamie bid adieu to the "kids" at the end of the show, and a total shock. 

[wmdekooning]

Just saw the "Laws of Attraction" episode, and I was not feelin' Kari as a blue-eyed blonde.  I don't know...

Did she get to keep her tips?

[UncleChuck]

I heard that in looking for a "new direction" for the show, TPTB considered moving to BRAVO and creating "Naked Mythbusting", but Jamie would not agree to take off his beret, so they had to try something else.

[merylinkid]

The tips were given back to the regular wait staff.

[scowl]

I agree it must be cost-cutting. The build team started appearing on camera on a show that wasn't the popular show it is now and it probably wasn't expected to last more than five seasons anyway. Ten seasons later the build team has become as popular as Jamie and Adam. It must be expensive to have five stars on this show.  

[UncleChuck]

 

I agree it must be cost-cutting..... It must be expensive to have five stars on this show.

Not only expensive for the five featured performers, but the "build team" often had myths that were equally, if not more expensive, than those investigated by Adam/Jamie. 

Cutting back to the basic two guys and spending more time explaining the build process and the science involved should cut an episode's expenses by half or more.

I hope Discovery finds another showcase for K/T/G, as I do like them a lot.

Or perhaps their firing is just Karma for all those Corvettes they demolished this season.

[JoannKB]

one small detail Jaime and Adam overlooked last night.  The test group was adults with some simulated babies.  But a parent with a small child would be very uncomfortable having their kid board alone while they waited for the next cattle call, that is when using the boarding method where the window seats are filled first, then middle, etc.

Not a small detail at all. I think people traveling together, even if they do not include small children, would not want to separate to board. I wouldn't want to send my 7 or 11 year old ahead to board or leave them behind to board without me. And frankly even if I were just traveling with my husband I wouldn't be too thrilled to separate for boarding.

[Sharpie66]

For fans of Adam, with a dash of Jamie thrown in, I really recommend going to YouTube and searching for Adam Savage Tested. You'll get the Tested YT channel, which include Adam's podcast, Still Untitled, the Adam Savage Project, as well as various other videos including his annual Incognito walk-throughs at Comic-Con, where he dresses up in really elaborate costumes with his face hidden, tweets out that he's on the floor, and challenges readers to find him. I really like the podcast a lot--he and the two Tested website guys cover a lot of different topics, from films (I love the adaptations one--he has a great Robin Williams anecdote from when he worked on Bicentenniel Man--as well as fun spoilerific ones on various new movies) to jobs both good and bad to what to stock your kitchen or tool shed with (that's two different eps, btw!).

Jamie being much more reserved, he only has a few short videos, but I really like the one where he talks about his love of Russian lit and linguistics, his college major. Apparently, he started working on his Masters in Library Science before he got distracted with effects work!

[Jamoche]

Although two people who are travelling together are more likely to cooperate getting into their seats - the problem with the standard zone system is that it always seems like the aisle person gets there before the window person and then you have to block the aisle while you wait for them to move, whereas if you're with someone you get there at the same time and already know who has to get in first. So a "windows first, and people travelling with them" system might work as well as simple "windows first".

Edited August 30, 2014 by Jamoche

[Xantar]

Didn't they board business class and families with children first? I think that's pretty standard practice on airlines anyway.

[Dobian]

Cool that he plays Sulu on the Internet series, Star Trek Continues.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Dobian

[Bruinsfan]

So sorry to hear that the band is breaking up. I wish Discovery would come up with some strictly educational show about engineering, exploring science museums, etc. for Kari, Grant and Tori to host. (It'd be a lot more fun to watch than the umpteenth wilderness survival or vehicle resell/repo show like their schedule is currently covered with.)

[Sharpie66]

FYI: Science Channel is going to show ALL 228 episodes of Mythbusters starting on Christmas Eve morning at 6 am (EST). Time to clear out my dvr in preparation!

[Kromm]

Somehow I'm only hearing about the cast changes now. 

 

Here's EW's recent article on the reasons.  Money (it looks like the early articles weren't all that clear about that).

 

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/12/19/mythbusters-interview/

[Sharpie66]

I'm watching the marathon today (get to work from home--tv is on!).

 

I hadn't realized that "Jamie wants big boom!" and "Am I missing...an eyebrow?" are both from the same myth ("Cell Phone Destroys Gas Station").

[Morrigan2575]

I just found out about it too. Figured it was money it's always comes down to $

I'm still really bummed I liked the trio.

Edited December 31, 2014 by Morrigan2575

[scowl]

The consensus among my friends is the water heater rocket is the most unexpectedly spectacular myth. It's majestic how that tank bursts out of its metal container and starts spinning like a rifle bullet as it launches skyward. 

[Sharpie66]

Oh, yes, water heater explosions are my favorite booms to watch--they are so fantastically elegant in their simplicity and power.

 

Although, I do think the prettiest was the second time Jamie and Adam tried to paint the room with explosives. Adam cheated and built something that sprayed paint on several separate canvases instead of the walls of a room, so it worked on that smaller scale. However, when it exploded, it sprayed the different colors of paint outward in this stunningly beautiful array of hues that would have looked gorgeous as a freeze-frame of the high-speed camera.

[Jamoche]

However, when it exploded, it sprayed the different colors of paint outward in this stunningly beautiful array of hues that would have looked gorgeous as a freeze-frame of the high-speed camera.

When that episode first aired Discovery did have high-res images of that - couldn't find them there, but a google search of "mythbuster paint explosion" found one here: http://pikdit.com/i/paint-explosion-from-mythbusters-1920x1080/

[CoderLady]

The show minus Grant, Tory and Kari.

 

I miss the expanded team but I have to admit I like the new science-y format, too. The informative popups do add interest. I think the length of time they stay visible needs a bit of fine tuning -- that's a lot to read while also watching the action, and sometimes the popup is more interesting than what's going on with the actual build, sometimes not.

 

The biggest surprise is Jamie this season. He seems happy. He joked and laughed more in the season premiere last night than I've seen him do in an entire season in the past. He's actually a fun guy when not doing the stone-face thing. For that alone I'm finding the new format something to look forward to.

Edited January 12, 2015 by CoderLady

[AConspiracy]

The scale model test for the cherry bomb didn't really reflect what actually happened with the real setup.

[Quilt Fairy]

They didn't seem to do the one thing that I think might reduce the pressure enough: increase the length of the pipe between the bomb and the toilets.

 

I do miss the intro of Kari, Grant and Tory, which my mind always turned into Cary Grant and Tori.

Edited January 11, 2015 by Quilt Fairy

[ae2]

I like Kari, Grant, and Tori, but when watching the marathon between Christmas and New Year, it became obvious how much we lost when they brought in the B team. I love seeing how the experiments come to be and the thought process that goes into them. I love the build process, the science, and even the failures.

So give me more of that and I'm happy. The pop ups were nice, but just having the team go into those details was even better.

That said, the myths and tests overall were sort of silly. But it is the Simpson's, so whatever, have fun. (Though I wouldnt have made it the season opener after such a big format change. ) the build for the wrecking ball was brilliant.

I hope they don't split Adam and Jaime too often.

[BungalowSummer]

I missed Kari, Grant and Tori and had the impression that there was more repetitive and drawn-out filler than usual. I may be alone in my opinion, but while I like Jamie and Adam just fine and they are, after all, the Mythbusters... Well, Kari, Grant and Tori are so much more likeable, both apart and together, and a lot more fun to watch. I think that was ultimately why they had to go, contract negotiations nothwithstanding.

 

The explanatory pop-ups were wasted on me. They distracted from what was happening on screen and were gone too quickly to make much of an impression.

 

Worst of all, I missed the blue-print drawings and the animations. They were unique to the style of the show and provided a major part of the humor.  It seems to me the producers risk reducing the show to just another Science Lite Discovery show by ditching that humor. What? Did they have problems paying the animators too? For a while, I was afraid they'd fired the narrator as well. That would have soured me completely.

 

As for the Simpsons Special topics, they were just meh. The only thing that grabbed my interest was how they constructed Homer, and the fact that all the Muppets are similarly made.

Edited January 12, 2015 by BungalowSummer

[ae2]

 

Worst of all, I missed the blue-print drawings and the animations. They were unique to the style of the show and provided a major part of the humor.  It seems to me the producers risk reducing the show to just another Science Lite Discovery show by ditching that humor. What? Did they have problems paying the animators too? For a while, I was afraid they'd fired the narrator as well. That would have soured me completely.

 

As for the Simpsons Special topics, they were just meh. The only thing that grabbed my interest was how they constructed Homer, and the fact that all the Muppets are similarly made.

 

How did I miss the lack of blueprint drawings? Man. Maybe this was a special case and they're back for "normal" episodes?

 

The Homer construction was amazing! I want to go buy foam to build my own. I sure hope we see him in the background in their workshop.

[Ailianna]

Granted I have a miserable awful case of bronchitis, but I didn't even realize it was a new episode. I slept through most of it, but what I stayed up for, wasn't that interesting. I hope it's just that I am sick and not a fan of the "myths" or the Simpsons.

[CoderLady]

I was sorry to read in a recent interview that by the third season they had run out of urban myths to bust. Those were a lot more interesting to me than all the explosions, guns, recreating movie stunts, and debunking jackass YouTube video episodes they've been doing for years.

 

I'd hoped that what they meant by getting back to science stuff was that they were going to take a serious look at more of the iffy things people generally believed, like the relative nastiness of various common surfaces they did a couple of seasons ago, and either prove or disprove them. I'm still interested but I'm hoping for more variety as a result of the format change.

[AConspiracy]

Can you build a propane-powered log cannon to shoot planks at enemies?
Can you safely disable a pursuing car by blasting a manhole cover upward into it?

 

 

I liked it when they were doing the ad-hoc build on site at the lumber yard. I used to like Junkyard Wars years ago, kind of a cleaner version of that.

[Rosieroo]

I am liking the new format. I had gotten a little slack about watching in the last few years because it had just become tiresome with the silly animation and jokes so being able to see more of the "how" and "why" of the build is such a refreshing change back to the show I fell in love with. I do miss Grant though.  

 

Also love hearing about and being able to see the respect Adam and Jamie have for each other.  Seems to me that their relationship has improved. I haven't really watched regularly in quite some time but they seem to be so much more at ease with each other than I remember.  

[Sharpie66]

Yeah, that distance, especially from Jamie, must have been more scripted in the past. Adam has said that he and Jamie don't hang out together--they're just too different in personality for that--but that they do respect each other and work well together. Although I did watch the rerun on Saturday night/Sunday morning of the ep from a few seasons ago where they put the cattle-catcher on the mega-huge truck and plowed through 16 cars like they were parting the waters with the prow of a boat. In the immediate aftermath, they're walking away from the truck almost punch-drunk, and Jamie whacks/half-pushes Adam out of sheer delight, giggling like a schoolgirl, and Adam is still coming down from the adrenaline rush.

[scowl]

This season I feel they're padding out fewer experiments to fit the whole show. At first I thought it would be interesting to see more detail on how they construct them but this week wasn't. Digging a trench and laying iron plates was fast forward material. And like Junkyard Wars, they happened to have exactly what they needed laying around. 

[merylinkid]

Well to be fair, so did the A-team just happen to have everything they needed to build whatever they wanted hanging around.   I was always waiting for the episode where BA built a full scale shuttle out of an old bus that Face "found" so Murdock could pilot them out of there.

[Ailianna]

I'm just not that interested in movie/TV stories. Even if it's a show I like, I just find myself drifting off during the testing. I'm much more interested in folk tales and real urban myths and that kind of thing. It looks like they've doubled down on the Hollywood myths now though.

[AConspiracy]

Can you easily carry and deploy a large variety of weapons, as in Doom?
Can you easily slice through large amounts of thrown fruit, as in Fruit Ninja?

 

 

I've never really thought video games always had realistic physics, that would seem to take a lot of the potential fun out them.

The episode was really light on "builds" and actual science stuff, oh well.

 

[FormerMod-a1]

I was kind of bored with this episode.  Even the movie and TV show themed episodes I found more interesting, even though they often have the same gravity defying effects to "bust".  

[ae2]

This episode was a little underwhelming. Of all the video game physics or weapons or just plain off the wall ideas you could test and you choose "does carrying a lot of bulky, awkward baggage slow me down and make me a worse fighter?" Dont get me wrong, I would also pay good money for a real life Doom course. but it wasn't A-list myth material. Where the other episodes this year slogged a bit they made up for it with great behind the scenes builds.

Couldn't we at least get some angry birds? That would have been fun!

[Latverian Diplomat]

Can you easily carry and deploy a large variety of weapons, as in Doom?

Can you easily slice through large amounts of thrown fruit, as in Fruit Ninja?

 

 

I've never really thought video games always had realistic physics, that would seem to take a lot of the potential fun out them.

 

Seriously. Medkits that restore health are just magic, basically. Other questions they left out:

 

Are rocket jumps possible? Why are bosses attracted to the ends of levels? Does reality have cheat codes?

[scowl]

I didn't watch the whole thing. So did carrying many large heavy things slow you down? The answer is a complete mystery to me!

[scootypuffjr]

For Adam and Jaime, gathering all the equipment did slow them down, just about doubling their original times. Well, duh - who expected a thing different? Of course it would. But then they recruited some super in shape mixed martial arts guy (similar to the guy in the game) and he wasn't slowed down at all. He might have even improved his time a little bit. Color me very surprised - I expected the extra weight to slow anybody down, but that didn't turn out to be the case.

[AConspiracy]

Can a car be changed into a motorcycle?
Can a bicycle be modified to operate on both land and water?

 

 

I liked seeing the first attempt to make the motorcycle. In recent seasons that would have never been shown, just them going to the pictures and making that (which they did also).

That bicycle would be impractical for anybody to really ride to work on, but would be fun say at a water park where you can get wet.

[Eliza422]

I found this episode very boring. I enjoyed the themes of the episodes in this season so far, but this one was just blah...

[Ailianna]

And since they still had to do two "myths" and two builds on two locations, it's pretty clear they cleared out the build team for financial reasons, not "creative" or to go back to the roots. I did have trouble paying attention at times, and it feels very workmanlike, but not particularly fun, and mythbusting should be fun.

[ae2]

This episode was unique in that they built their version of the motorcycle from a car before looking at the specs and details to replicate the myth as closely as possible. This really sums up the way the show has changed this season. It's more focused on "let's see if we can build and do cool things."

I don't generally mind, just fascinating. Also interesting is the new follow up show to Mythbusters has exactly that premise.

[AConspiracy]

Can you turn a corner faster by drifting than with conventional driving methods?
Can you drift into a parallel parking space without hitting the adjacent cars or the curb?

 

 

 

Well that was pretty lame. Less myth and more "can average drivers do these things with little practice?"

 

Aaaaand the season's over. 6 shows a season, dumped on Saturday night, doesn't bode well for the show.

 

 

[Darth Nigel]

Yeah, I made it about half way through this one.  I as waiting for them to roll out the professional drift driver to run the road course, and was hoping that they would also wheel out "The Stig" for the non-drift lap.  "Some say, he once burned off an eyebrow on live tv..."

 

So not thrilled by a couple of the episodes (this one, the Doom/video game one) and a bit ambiguous on the "transformer" one.  Was hoping for a few more episodes with actual myths in them (even if they revisited some that they did 10 seasons ago).

 

All in all ... meh

Edited February 16, 2015 by Darth Nigel

[ae2]

That's the entire season? Man. What a strange and somewhat disappointing ride.

 

Ep 1 - The Simpsons. Lame myths, very cool lifesize foam Homer build. (Why didn't they test jumping a gorge on a skateboard?)

Ep 2 - Indiana Jones - awesome whip build, fun "myths", can't complain, but there were plenty of other IJ things that would have been cool too.

Ep 3 - A Team - best of the season because the incredible lumber yard build scene, but they went way "off myth" here to make it fun

Ep 4 - Video Games - one of the worst episodes of the entire show and they really spoiled an opportunity for great things, but if the show doesn't get another season we know Jaime and Adam can make a killing by creating real life video game adventures

Ep 5 - Transformers - did they even try tying this to the show/movie? I can't remember. Once again, they went off myth, trying their own build before researching the actual myth. Kind of fun I guess

Ep 6 - Drifting. Fun for them, sure, what myth were we testing? This one should definitely have been the B-myth while the build team did the A-myth.

 

Also strange coincidence, the new show What Could Possibly Go Wrong? did the drifting into a parking space on their first episode the week before Mythbusters did it. 

[merylinkid]

This season showed why they had two teams.   Otherwise, there really is not enough stuff to fill in a whole hour just testing the "myth."     With only Jamie and Adam, too much time, not enough to do.

[Ailianna]

I'm seriously thinking about dumping this show. I haven't enjoyed a single episode this season. Certainly not the way I have enjoyed past seasons. And no offense intended to anyone, but all of the myths we have this season seemed basically aimed at teen to twenty-something males. I'm sure there's a lot of mechanical know-how being demonstrated, but those have always been my least favorite. One of the things I used to like about this show was that it was a way of exploring the world around us, with all kinds of different uses for ordinary things, like salsa to break out of prison, or some of the crazy survival myths. (Not that I plan to use those lessons in my actual life!) This has just been adolescent toys for boys, IMO, and I'm not enjoying it.