Anybody familiar with the original MythBusters is likely familiar with its gradual decline. The first 5 or 6 season were the "golden age" and then they started tweaking the formula for ratings / to reach a wider audience (i.e. less and less substance, and more and more "wow factor"). The last few seasons had devolved into a sort of "witches brew" of scripted reality TV, and a race to blow something up / create a spectacle, magnificently void of logic / reasoning.
"MythBusters: The Search" has once again lowered the bar. The show is now formatted as a competition, yet they attempt to shoehorn the elements of the original into the new format as if nothing has changed (e.g. classifying a myth as confirmed, plausible, or busted, when the new format provides virtually no rigorous, empirical justification for doing so).
To present this uncontrolled, "fly by the seat of your pants" science (if you can even call it that) which takes place under the new competition format, as any sort of definitive, reproducible result is downright idiotic.
Their mistake was using the "MythBusters" name for the show, as it creates a certain expectation, which goes magnificently unfulfilled.
"MythBusters: The Search" has once again lowered the bar. The show is now formatted as a competition, yet they attempt to shoehorn the elements of the original into the new format as if nothing has changed (e.g. classifying a myth as confirmed, plausible, or busted, when the new format provides virtually no rigorous, empirical justification for doing so).
To present this uncontrolled, "fly by the seat of your pants" science (if you can even call it that) which takes place under the new competition format, as any sort of definitive, reproducible result is downright idiotic.
Their mistake was using the "MythBusters" name for the show, as it creates a certain expectation, which goes magnificently unfulfilled.