Let me preface this review by stating I have seen every MythBusters episode ever made multiple times. This review is not based on initial impressions but instead is a thorough look into the whole show.
Let's be real here, the MythBusters are not scientists, they worked in special effects before the show. Trying to pass themselves off as expert scientists annoys me and discredits real scientists. They use science buzzwords and really hammer them into the ground. You could make a drinking game out of how often they say words like "data point" or "result" and be drunk as a skunk before the episode is even halfway done.
They get plenty of things right but they also get a ton of stuff wrong, or they don't pursue it far enough and just declare it busted because they couldn't easily accomplish it. To state your opinion as fact and the case is closed is completely against scientific principles. We all know Discovery Channel has become infamous for faking reality shows and while MythBusters is supposed to be legitimate the fact is it is first and foremost an entertainment show produced on a timeline. That should immediately make everyone take the outcomes with a grain of skepticism. The hosts even regularly complained that people would contact them/Discovery about how they got things wrong.
Every time one of the MythBusters picks up a gun you know it's going to be a mess. Especially when they were doing a quick draw myth and ended up firing bullets into the ground a few feet in front them because they didn't know how to safely and quickly draw a firearm and fire it accurately at a target. They even repeatedly point guns at the cameraman in clear violation of basic firearm safety. It doesn't matter whether the gun is supposedly unloaded or not, you DO NOT point it at anything you don't want to shoot. Again showing how they are Hollywood prop people, not professionals.
The most intelligent person on the show was hands down Grant. May he rest in peace. Kari was only there as a token and window dressing, plus she was Jamie's pet intern. Her and Tory had zero scientific aptitude but Kari had looks and Tori was a skilled fabricator. If you pay attention you'll notice Kari nearly always avoided having to do anything even remotely uncomfortable or physical and instead Grant and Tory were always made to do it. At which she took much delight in torturing them. If we're all about representing equality for women then she should have been in there right beside "the boys", as she called them, getting her hands dirty instead of acting like a dainty princess.
Jamie has the personality of a turnip and while he tried to present himself as a big badass manly man he constantly wussed out. It always fell to Adam to complete the task because Jamie was too scared or didn't like any type of pain being inflicted. Jamie is also arguably the least scientific person on the show. Adam was there as the host with an actual personality since there was no way Jamie could carry it himself. But even Adam was just a model marker for movies.
At the end of the day MythBusters was an entertainment show, not a scientific one, and should be viewed as such. It has been one of Discovery's biggest hits and being on the Discovery channel people sadly took the show as gospel. As far as reality shows go you could watch a lot worse, but just like all reality shows don't believe everything they tell you.
Let's be real here, the MythBusters are not scientists, they worked in special effects before the show. Trying to pass themselves off as expert scientists annoys me and discredits real scientists. They use science buzzwords and really hammer them into the ground. You could make a drinking game out of how often they say words like "data point" or "result" and be drunk as a skunk before the episode is even halfway done.
They get plenty of things right but they also get a ton of stuff wrong, or they don't pursue it far enough and just declare it busted because they couldn't easily accomplish it. To state your opinion as fact and the case is closed is completely against scientific principles. We all know Discovery Channel has become infamous for faking reality shows and while MythBusters is supposed to be legitimate the fact is it is first and foremost an entertainment show produced on a timeline. That should immediately make everyone take the outcomes with a grain of skepticism. The hosts even regularly complained that people would contact them/Discovery about how they got things wrong.
Every time one of the MythBusters picks up a gun you know it's going to be a mess. Especially when they were doing a quick draw myth and ended up firing bullets into the ground a few feet in front them because they didn't know how to safely and quickly draw a firearm and fire it accurately at a target. They even repeatedly point guns at the cameraman in clear violation of basic firearm safety. It doesn't matter whether the gun is supposedly unloaded or not, you DO NOT point it at anything you don't want to shoot. Again showing how they are Hollywood prop people, not professionals.
The most intelligent person on the show was hands down Grant. May he rest in peace. Kari was only there as a token and window dressing, plus she was Jamie's pet intern. Her and Tory had zero scientific aptitude but Kari had looks and Tori was a skilled fabricator. If you pay attention you'll notice Kari nearly always avoided having to do anything even remotely uncomfortable or physical and instead Grant and Tory were always made to do it. At which she took much delight in torturing them. If we're all about representing equality for women then she should have been in there right beside "the boys", as she called them, getting her hands dirty instead of acting like a dainty princess.
Jamie has the personality of a turnip and while he tried to present himself as a big badass manly man he constantly wussed out. It always fell to Adam to complete the task because Jamie was too scared or didn't like any type of pain being inflicted. Jamie is also arguably the least scientific person on the show. Adam was there as the host with an actual personality since there was no way Jamie could carry it himself. But even Adam was just a model marker for movies.
At the end of the day MythBusters was an entertainment show, not a scientific one, and should be viewed as such. It has been one of Discovery's biggest hits and being on the Discovery channel people sadly took the show as gospel. As far as reality shows go you could watch a lot worse, but just like all reality shows don't believe everything they tell you.