This is a horrible, horrbile show.

I'm a big Myth Busters fan and Smash Lab is complete rip-off. The Samsh Lab crew is a bunch of idiots and they almost killed a couple guys on last night's episode.

Stopping run-away vehicles with rockets?? Yeah, that is a brilliant "ground-breaking" idea.

:rolleyes:

The scary thing is, someone somewhere actually thought that would work.

I kind of like Smash Lab. I far prefer the format of the show to MythBuster's schizophrenic format. But I like MythBusters too.

Unfortunately, I agree. I had high hopes for this show, but it feels so contrived. They try too hard to make all the people say or do things within their "specialty" (ie. idea guy, engineer, scientist, etc.). Why can't it just be 4 people who like to try to figure out solutions to problems?

While the experiments on Mythbusters are likely well-planned out from start to finish, the process feels way more natural and off-the-cuff than Smash Labs. It seems like they've already decided how they are going to do something before they even do the small scale tests. On more than one occasion I just skipped to the end to see the final experiment.

I haven't seen this latest episode, but it sounds like this might be the one that makes me cancel the series pass. :(

One guy last night, I think it was the "designer" :rolleyes: actually said (paraphrasing), "losing your breaks as you're travelling down a hill - everybody greatest fear!!".

Give me a break.

I haven't seen this latest episode, but it sounds like this might be the one that makes me cancel the series pass. :(

Watch it - if not for just out of morbid curiousity.

Spoiler alert:

The rockets fired early - while three people were still in very close proximety.

Sorry, I'm not good at the spoiler camouflaging.

I would tend to agree that both this show and the people on it are stupid and contrived. Here is another example.

On this same show - they decided they needed to begin by seeing if a truck with a trailer behind it could engine brake to a full stop on their runoff road. Because of the danger, they decided they needed to remotely control their truck. Here is where it gets super-dumb.

1) Their runoff road went downhill and ended in a cliff. I don't know how many of you have driven in the mountains, but the runoff roads usually go up-hill, not down (for obvious reasons). In addition, while there might be a cliff at the end of a road of this type; why do you need one just to figure out how far it takes a truck with a trailer to engine brake to a full stop? Why not just have no cliff at the end of the road and eliminate that source of danger?
2) They didn't hook their remote control up to the brakes of the truck (or at least they claimed not to). I know that they didn't want to use them but wouldn't you hook them up just in case? When it becomes obvious that the truck is not going to stop in time, or if it lurched out of control and was heading for something it shouldn't, wouldn't you want to be able to hit the real brakes?

Basically - this was just a big BS reason to run their truck and trailer off a cliff (which, of course, destroyed both). They ruined a brand new truck in what appeared to be an attempt to prove that trucks break when they run off cliffs. I'm an engineer, so the profound waste involved in running this pointless 'experiment' really irks me.

I think I only watched two complete episodes before I switched to a more expedient method: the first couple of minutes (premise) and then skipping to the last segment (the big test/experiment).

The show is decent. There is way too much filler scenes though. It gets kind of boring after a while, but I love watching them blow crap up. Thats pretty cool. The middle part of the show is kind of dull.

The problem with Smash Lab against Mythbusters is that with Jamie and Adam, you feel that they would do doing this anyway - that you are simply observing them doing their thing. With Smash Lab, I always get the feeling that they are trying too hard to make a TV show out of nothing that interesting.

I guess it is personal preference but I really do prefer the down-to-earth nature of the Mythbusters setup. Then again, I have only seen two episodes of Smash Lab currently. There is also far too much repetition in Smash lab for my liking.

I agree with Mythbusters you can tell the whole group is having fun and I have fun with them. The Smash Group are a bunch of dorks and I really feel that the whole show is lame. I watched two episodes and felt that was enough.

Here's an idea: take the budget from Smash Labs and some spare time from Mythbusters talent and make a new Junkyard Wars series.

Most networks wait for a different network to air a derivative, hollow clone. Smash Lab has no chemistry. Not even a little, not even at all. There's no "hey man, watch this" factor. Adam and Jamie built an ejection seat in a car. They blew up a cement truck. They made a wooden cannon and then blew it up. Smash Lab made goo that failed to slow down a speeding car.

The basic problem with Smash Lab is simple. A lot of engineers spend a great deal of time keeping exciting (though dangerous) things from happening. Mythbusters is a show about engineers making dangerous things happen. Safety is great, but not so entertaining. I want to see stupid ideas engineered well with spectacular results. That's why I enjoyed Junkyard Wars (or Scrapheap Challenge), why I love watching Mythbusters, and why I made it through exactly one episode of Smash Lab.

You would think that Discovery would know the secret formula since they own the formula...

I don't have a problem with the folks on the show trying out goofy, even borderline insane ideas. My only problem is how they feel they have to keep on insisting that these "brilliant new ideas" will end up solving real world problems.

-- Putting a house on that 'slider system' is awesome in a earthquake...and a horrible idea for the remaining 99.99999998% of the time the house has to stand upright.

-- A magnetic fire escape system on the exterior of high-rise buildings might work...if you could get the people out there, set up the 10' x 10', several hundred pound platform (hanging off the side of a building), and then drop it, all during the middle of an actual fire. And heaven help anyone who missed the drop.

-- And don't even get me started on the economics of wrapping low-cost housing in carbon-fiber sheathing.

Over on the Discovery Channel's website, the VP of Creative Content/Talent for SL and MB asks for comments and suggestions on SL. Last time I looked, folks were NOT shy about giving it to her both barrels on what a screwup the program has turned out to be... pretty funny reading... I wouldn't count on it being on for very long based on viewer response.

Kindest thing I can say is it's in HD.

[Edited to add link and correct VP title]

Smash Labs feedback (http://blogs.discovery.com/smash_lab/2008/01/an-open-letter.html)

Already canceled my season pass for SL, too bad :(
I'll stick with Adam and Jamie... they blow up and smash enough things for my tastes anyway. You can learn some important facts from MB from time to time- the recent show about cell phones/static discharge at the gas pump was very informative. Promised my kids we'll do the Mentos/Diet Coke geyser experiment once it warms up a bit and we open the pool :D:D

I thought from the title and a couple of previews that this show might be fun to watch. I watched the first two and that is it. I hate the cast, very annoying, especially the woman for some reason.

Trying to make the world injury proof, but at what cost. Some of the crap that they've come up with would be impossible to implement. At least Mythbusters is ground in reality.

Promised my kids we'll do the Mentos/Diet Coke geyser experiment

So I'm not the only one. :D

I thought from the title and a couple of At least Mythbusters is ground in reality.

Well, the "busting" part of it is, anyway. ;)

I agree with the majority here in that this show stinks.

I see where they are coming from in trying to figure out solutions to problems while thinking outside of the box. But the things they come up with are just not practical.

I haven't seen the show, but the negative reviews here and on the VP's link have induced me to DVR it. I can't wait. Is it so bad it's good, or at least funny, like "Flipper" on Voom?

I haven't seen the show, but the negative reviews here and on the VP's link have induced me to DVR it. I can't wait. Is it so bad it's good, or at least funny, like "Flipper" on Voom?
No. It's so bad it's bad - and uninteresting.

Yup. Pretty disappointing show. During the first episode (lightweight concrete) I kept thinking how all these tests must have been done before by real engineers. Did they even check.

The retro rocket thing was just a plain stupid idea. I'm surprised no one got hurt with their little test chariot thing. The stupid look on one of the hosts when the big rockets misfired said it all. It did have one of the best rocket mounted camera shots I've seen.

I have to admit though, the liquefaction(they didn't once use that term) car/bank robber trap was kinda cool and could actually be practical. They definitely didn't take enough care handling the Perlite. That stuff will mess you up if you breathe it in. A lot of their antics are reckless, often due to ignorance from the looks of it, and they don't bother to include a warning like the Mythbusters do.

One thing that comes up that I don't understand is when they suddenly have some sort of deadline that causes them to have to rush things. The sun is setting? Is there no tomorrow? Considering how bad this show is, maybe not.

The show won't last. Ratings will kill it if they don't literally kill themselves first.

That was completely ridiculous. "Fluidization"?? That made me cringe EVERY time I heard it. If "Fluidization" is an actual science term, it should be dissolved. It made it even more evident that these people weren't scientists when they used that term.

It is and always has been "liquifaction" or "liquify the sand"

Last night's ep was pretty cool, but my patience with this show is growing thin.

I tried to watch the "Fluidiization" show, but had to FF through most of it. There is about 5 minutes of content in this show. There is another show out there if you like this kind of thing, "The Re-inventors" on Voom's Treasure channel. I saw an episode where they built Leonardo's multiple barrel gun and put it to the test. Much better show than I expected.

As far as the Earthquake House rocking show.
It's fine as long as the ground shakes in the direction of the rails. (say nothh south)
If however the earth decides to rock in the other direction (say east west)
The house will simply fall of the rails .

It's fine as long as the ground shakes in the direction of the rails. (say nothh south)
If however the earth decides to rock in the other direction (say east west)
The house will simply fall of the rails .
They used "rails" simply because the test would be in a known direction, going back and forth. The design they used would work just as well with a bowl that could handle movement in all directions.

I'm with most people here. The show had potential, but I just dont buy any of the hosts as designers, "ideas guy", etc. I have heard that Deanne is actually a scientist, but she really doesnt click with anyone on there. I think I'm starting to imagine some "tension" between her and the guy she is constantly paired with. I guess I'm just looking for some sort of entertainment. There is just no chemistry there at all...

I think I'm starting to imagine some "tension" between her and the guy she is constantly paired with.
Yeah, that loser designer guy obviously wants to get in her pants. Maybe he already has?

This show has probably worn out it's stay. Now they are broadcasting failures as they did with the CO2 Cop Car. How in the world would four "Scientists" not be able to figure out that you cannot stop a car with CO2? It was a bad idea to begin with. Not only can you avoid the CO2 Cloud, you can start the engine right after it's cleared.

The cloud was a good idea because it takes visibility out of the equation but there would be no way to directly inject CO2 into the air cleaner at 120-130Mph

It doesn't really matter, I don't think anybody has been watching this show. It's got as much chemistry as (fill in the blank)....

Anyone have a tally of failures vs. successes? I'm thinking they have broadcast more failures than successes. I don't know why I keep watching this show... lol