Some Smashing Required

To hide from the winds, I sat down into front of the 'tivo' last night and watched two new shows from the Science and Discovery Channel - Smash Lab and Some Assembly Required.

Smash Lab is a Mythbusters rip off. They ditch the whole 'myth' premise and instead start with some idea of dubious plausibility (in this case - arrerated concrete to slow auto crashes). Then they broke into two teams and did a Mythbuster's 'build off' type show. The show clearly has a decent budget, since they used lots of concrete, vehicles, and work crews to get things done. I am not sure about the cast members and hoped for more than one hot geeky girl on the show.

Some Assembly Required is kind of a mash-up of How It's Made and Dirty Jobs. It has a main host and his scientist sidekick. They go to business and inject themselves into the manufacturing process. I saw the Jelly Belly's, Kohler toilets, and Ebonite bowling ball episode. They explain a lot of the nuances that go into the manufacture in a way that How It's Made does not. Who knew that jelly bean, bowling ball, and toilet manufacture was so hands-on ?

Both shows were pretty decent and I will continue to watch them.