Discovery Channel shows....

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NOG has it right. Science stuff got it's own channel - The Science Channel. History has 3 channels - History Channel, History International, and Military channel. The Animals have their own channel too! The thing is, The Discovery channel couldn't handle all the shows they *wanted* to have, so they split it up accordingly. They're all still owned and operated by Discovery though.

 

OI!!!! What's wrong with Top Gear???

 

LMFAO!!!

I was waiting for one of the Brits to come to TG's defense!

 

When I see this thread I think of the great song that goes like this:

You and me baby ain't nothin but mammals,
so lets do it like they do on the Discovery Channel!

I don't know who sings it nor do I care to but I really enjoyed the video with the young idiots dressed up in animal costumes and jumping around. It still takes a backseat to the "Boom de ya da" commercials for Discovery, though.

 

I actually prefer the National Geographic Channel for science shows.

 

That classic was Bloodhound Gang: The Bad Touch.

If science means blowing things (and looking at the explosion in slow motion) or making huge drama out of fishing, then yes - Discovery is a science channel.

 

But Myhtbusters is WAY COOL.

 

NOG, I can't say that I've watched an entire episode of Whale Wars. But if it pisses you guys off, I'm pretty sure that it suits me. Maybe it is just more sensationalism, I wasn't really paying that much attention those times that I did see it. Sometimes I listen to shows in the background while I'm gaming.

The emergence of middle-class bombast is what's wrong with Top Gear, my dear. And it's what's swamping the BBC as of late. maybe it's just me, but I can't remember the BBC having quite so much gardening, interior decorating, house buying, antiquing, and other mind-numbing middle-class consumer-oriented shows in the past. There used to be way more interesting stuff on.
Jeremy Clarkson is a very entertaining bloke, and I even caught myself watching for 10 or 15 minutes. But I just really really HATE cars.

 

Mythbusters ROCKS, though sometimes their science stinks (and on rare occasions their experts, do you believe explosives experts had never heard of a steam explosion before?), but sometimes it's great (did a nice pseudo-wind-tunnel for a truck once).

 

Alot of those shows have one good premiere season and that's about it. I was thrilled with the first season of "Ice Road Truckers". It was a very exciting show; but the second season, not so much. They just added a cute woman driver but it's just more of the same.

I feel the same way with "Deadliest Catch". The first season was GREAT! But the consecutive seasons are just more of the same. They go out, get in a storm, catch some crabs and call it a day. Also, the first season was 8 or 10 episodes. I believe the latest one is up to about 25.

And finally, my favorite show from Discovery Channel is "Dirty Jobs". Just like the other shows I've named though, it falls into the same trap. It's the same crap (no pun intended) over and over again. And they're running short of ideas too. What was once dirty work is now just putting up a billboard. Although, they do shine through with some really disgusting jobs nobody could ever want. The host, Mike Rowe, also meets a ton of interesting people.

I'm not saying the Discovery Channel is a bad thing. If you've never checked out these shows, I believe you ARE missing out. But just one season of each is good enough.

 

Mythbusters is one of my favourite shows, but I think lately they've given more space to pure entertainment and left science to the background. I know they don't show nearly everything, but some myths aren't tested thoroughly - and the mandatory explosions tend to lose their shock value. But it's still a great show . It's nice to watch highly skilled persons doing a job they love, and to see them occasionally horribly fail. The sound of explosion followed by Adam Savages manic laughter is truly an inseparable pair .

 

I don't think 'science' has ever really been their focus, to be honest. None of those people are scientists, and it shows when they test a myth. They basically try to replicate the myth and then try to replicate the result, often without any understanding of what's going on behind it all.

They do have a basic understanding of experimental procedure, though, as can be witnessed in a set of experiments designed to test the idea that all life is connected.

Also, they have some wacked out probabilities in that show. Can you believe almost no one on that show is allergic to poison oak? It's supposed to be 1/4 of humans are immune, but apparently about 90% of Mythbusters are! They had one lady they didn't test on their team because they know she's seriously allergic (as in, hospitalized), and then they had to go all the way through the hosts, assistants, tech team, and camera team before they found one person who was regularly allergic!