In the interest of full disclosure – I am a huge fan of “Mythbusters”, have been since day 1.
Last week the Discovery Channel ran sneak peeks of upcoming series, one such series is “Smash Lab.”
Insulting - That’s the word you could use to accurately describe “Smash Lab,” it’s an insult to the audience’s intelligence. The whole sneak peek episode was a 1 hour commercial for Rhino Lining, where they “tested” to see if the truck bed liner could be used to bomb proof a building. I don’t have a problem with the shows creed to “take on everyday technology and apply it in revolutionary new ways.” Sounds good, if you actually test that technology in an unbiased way. It was clear from the start of the show that the result was predetermined; scripted even.
The Crew – According the Discovery Channel site “The Crew”, as their referred to on the show, may actually be as qualified as the show’s narrator leads you to believe. Unfortunately, “The Crew” looses any credibility their credentials might afford them once you realize their tests are either blatantly rigged or simply irrelevant.
Blowing trucks up – In the first test, two identical trucks were blown up, one with its bed sprayed with Rhino Lining and the other without. You’re told that the explosive was placed on the rear axle, directly under the truck bed on both trucks. The first truck (unprotected) was blow to pieces, including the bed. The second truck (protected) was blow to pieces as well but the bed survived largely intact, apparently thanks to the Rhino Lining. In fact the protected bed didn’t even look as if it had been on a truck that was blow to pieces. However, it became clear when they showed the high speed footage of the protected truck’s explosion that the explosive was not under the rear axle but closer to the cab of the truck. “The Crew” was all too happy to point out that the Rhino Liner “deflected” the explosive blast away from the bed and towards the cab, saving the truck bed. The audience was left to ponder how PLASTIC could be so awesome.
Shrapnel – “The Crew” pointed out (rightly) that in an explosion it’s not only the shock wave you have to worry about, there is also shrapnel. So they proceeded to test Rhino Lining’s ability to stop shrapnel using bird shot from a shotgun. They hung a piece of lining up and fired one round and it went straight through the Rhino Lining. “The Crew” reasoned that when the Rhino Lining is used on a truck the bed acts as a backing giving the lining more strength, so they tried the shotgun test again, this time with the Rhino Lining applied to a 1/4″ piece of plywood. Problem is, they faced the plywood backing towards the oncoming shot, so the plywood absorbed most of the impact of the shot, not the Rhino Lining. “The Crew” was all giddy when they looked and found that the Rhino Lining stopped the shot, but it didn’t, the plywood did. Not to mention that explosive shrapnel can travel much, much faster than the speed of bird shot, I guess using an EXPLOSION to test the liner’s ability to stop shrapnel would have made to much sense?
Protect the Windows – Again, “The Crew” managed to point out the obvious, that buildings have windows and in an explosion they could get blown out. So they had to find a way to use the Rhino Lining to protect windows from an explosion. They constructed some shutters that were supposed to be forced shut by the blast’s shock wave. The shutters that they used for their final test (on the building) were made of steal with Rhino Lining sprayed on the side that would face the blast. Ok, Captain Obvious has a question - if you make the blast shutters out of steal, why would you spray them with PLASTIC? It’s a moot question, as the shutters didn’t work anyway, every window was blown out.
I could go on, but if I do I will have to Rhino Line my head because it will EXPLODE.
It was no surprise that at the end of the show the “Smash Lab” “Crew” found that Rhino Lining can be used to bomb proof a building, at least a sudo, one story (no load on the walls), masonry building-looking-structure. It was obvious within the first 5 minutes of the show that they were going to come to that conclusion.
What “Smash Lab” comes across as is a cheap knock-off of “Mythbusters”. Someone at The Discovery Channel looked at “Mythbuster’s” success and thought it was all about the destruction and explosions, missing key ingredients: science and integrity. It’s also apparent that the whole point (at least of this episode) was to make Rhino Lining look good in front of the camera, the show seems to be a sham. Whether or not this trend will continue as the series progresses waits to be seen, but it’s certainly not off to a good start.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
R. Deegan 03.15.08 at 9:04 pm
What IS clear about SmashLabs is that their production values (that means THE PRODUCER’S values) are focused squarely at pre-pubescent boys. It is poorly organized, there are excessively-long post-commercial summaries of the previous segment, and the entire presentation has a silly, juvenile look and feel to it.
Conversely, Mythbusters has everything SL lacks, including a charismatic cast way beyond anything that SL would seem to be remotely capable of. Mythbusters has another essential ingredient - the ability to put a perspective on what they do, even laugh at it at times.
It is the adult values of MB which separate it from the juvenile values of SL. I only wish that SL could have been HALF as good as MB.
Adam 03.15.08 at 10:14 pm
@ R. Deegan
Thanks for taking the time to comment, I agree.
Last night, in trying to be fair I brought myself to watch another episode of Smash Lab and I was left overwhelmingly unimpressed. While the episode, where they use fluidized sand to stop a would-be bank robber was not a outright Ad (as the premier episode was) I found the concept to be rather impractical. The science of fluidized sand is interesting and their demonstrations were impressive but beyond that the show is still a sham.
In watching another episode, I found that the show itself feels very manufactured. The chemistry of the cast is off, they don’t feel like they want to be around each other…
Like you pointed out - Watching the show I feel like the cast is talking down to the audience, which is a bit insulting; when the show itself is so… STUPID.
The concept of the show is very interesting and has potential… unfortunately, the execution is grossly flawed. Of course, that’s what the producers seem to have been after - a dumb show.
In the promos for the show they say:
They do a pretty good job of that.