01.04.07
Public TV’s New Science Show
Public TV is doing a very cool social experiment. For each Wednesday, starting tonight and for the next two weeks, they’re airing a different science program pilot. You can then go online and leave comments on which one you liked best. The best received program will start a regular run this fall. If you miss the show you can also go online and watch the bits for free.
The first entry was Wired Science, from the creators of Wired Magazine. While I had high hopes for the show, my comments were decidedly against the program:
I really had high hopes. The opening animations were slick and immediately invoked the Wired brand… then things went down from there. First off was the set – what was that? Did somebody let a four year old loose with the crayons? What happened to the bright, bold colors? There’s all this dead sea scroll stuff hanging about. Is this what happened to the house set from Blair Witch? Next, each host seemed incredibly uncomfortable; I’m sure they all have personalities in real life but here they were as bland as the meteor segment. Just when one would seem about to break into quirky humor the moment would be broken with a statement of the obvious. What made American Scientific Frontiers so great? The stories? NO! It was Alan Alda, acting like an excited child being allowed to play with big boy toys! He was infectious! And he didn’t have to do a stunt like cutting a plasma television in half either. What was that? From this bland, droning crew suddenly one is acting bubbly and saws a TV in half? The results of which we don’t even see as we cut immediately to computer animations? What? What a waste! The one point that Wired could of really stepped up and made something unique was the interview segment; with their name recognition they could pull some really interesting personalities in for a talk. But that’s only have the battle – when the interviewer asked ‘So rocket science is really rocket science?’ I wanted to throw the remote at the screen. What the hell kind of question is that? Why not just ask him ‘boxers or briefs’? The answer is probably a lot more television worthy than watching the guest blanch.
As you can tell, I was really disappointed. Did anyone else see it? What were your thoughts?
Milkman said,
January 4, 2007 at 11:47 am
I was unaware of this… but shall have to watch these now as well.
libel_vox said,
January 5, 2007 at 1:57 am
As I mentioned, all three shows can be streamed for free (Windows Media Player or Quicktime, unfortunately, no flash). Of the two remaining shows, Science Investigators and 22nd Century, I really enjoyed Science Investigators. While the name is bland its a bunch of bright and charismatic folks getting viewers mail and then going out and investigating the answers. The two segments I watched where ‘Are we related to Neanderthals’ and the one where a soldier from Iraq looks into artificial limb options. The first was fun and quirky, mainly due to the investigator, while the second was touching and heartfelt without being forced. The editing was quick and fun (while in the south of France the investigator mentions having to check out the chardonnay before hunting for Neanderthal remains).
The 22nd Century did have an interesting premise: they have an actor portraying Huxley in all his anti-technology nervousness verses an overly chipper futuristic cyborg woman. The bring up topics, like biological augmentation with a short piece about current research, and then the two debate whether its good or bad. It’s an interesting concept but completely overwhelmed by all the bad cgi they have spinning around the characters (apparently they all exist in the chuck-e-cheese version of the matrix, or something).
So, anyway, Science Investigators gets my vote.