“Mythbusters” has returned, in a manner of speaking, in the form of a competition reality show called “Mythbusters: The Search.” The show has been transformed into something like “American Idol” except for engineers, technicians, and builders instead of singers. The series started with ten would be mythbusters vying for the title to replace Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman by taking on myths and being eliminated one by one. The first episode involving building a sideways ejector seat depicted in one of the “Fast and Furious” movies. The original guys had already done the vertical kind seen in the James Bond movies.
The show also did a brief foray into “deflategate” to find out if a deflated football really is easier to catch.
The ten nerd-techs were divided into two teams and were given four days to come up with a solution. Coast Kyle Hill, the editor of Nerdist.com and star of the Youtube series “Because Science,” provided running commentary. The ghosts of Adam and Jamie were ever present through clips from the old show.
How did the show do?
The myth was spectacular in the spirit of the old show, incorporating as it did fast cars and a new version of the crash dummy Buster being abused by being hurtled out of a moving vehicle onto a paved track. The sequences of the two teams wrestling with the technical details of their solutions were not bad.
The one problem with the show is that the personalities of the contestants have yet to emerge. One of the joys of the old show was the interplay between the exuberant Adam and the taciturn Jamie, not to mention the zest brought to the proceedings of the B Team of Torie, Grant, and Kari. This is not necessarily a bad thing so fat.
One of the annoying aspects of other competition shows of this ilk is the focus on conflict and off-putting personalities. Despite arguments over the solution by one of the teams, the competitors were all business when it came to welding, electrical work, tearing things apart and putting them back together. The theme of science and engineering done in a fun way was still there.
So, can the new “Mythbusters” recapture the charm of the old without the old guys? Let’s call this one “plausible” so far and continue to watch with interest.
