Discovery Channel Megathread

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Syncopator: Jul 21, 2006; by Ozma

Spirogyra posted:

But How It's Made drives me into an inexplicable rage.

Watching it is OK. It's interesting to see the work that goes into the everyday things that I never think about.

However, the music and narration make it absolutely impossible for me to watch (and I can't watch it without sound--I'm strange that way, I suppose). It reminds me of the horrible film strips I used to watch in grade school, with the mind numbing voice and bad synth muzak. The narration, as the process for making a comb is explained as if the audience is a group of 2nd graders, will generally get me to change the channel in about 2 minutes.

I suspect that the narration is paced to fit with the footage, like if the narrators (for each localization) explained how potato chips were made at a speed more suitable for college students, it would take maybe two minutes instead of the 5.5 minutes for each segment in the show, and there wouldn't be enough time for that awesome footage of the peeler and the slicer and the optical air-blowing system to remove bad chips.

Also, maybe it's because of my predilection toward electronic music in general, but I like the music on that show.

Martytoof posted:

Now How It's Made is completely different. For some reason I can watch the same episodes over and over (and they sure do seem to play that "snowboards" episode a loving lot) but I never really get tired of it. Contrary to Mythbusters, I can come home, find 3 or 4 episodes that I've seen a hundred times before and just chill out watching them back to back. Plus, every time I catch an episode I haven't seen in a while it's like a special little surprise

I think by now I've seen all 104 episodes, and they're still interesting; I hope there will be a Season 9 :comeback:

fake edit: I haven't seen Episodes 5, 9, 13, 19, 20, 29, 30, 32, 34, 39, 43, 44, 45, 48, 50, 51, 60, 64, 92, 94, 99, 102, or 103, so I've seen less than 80% of the series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_It%27s_Made

I must comment on how amazing it is when the same issue is covered in more than one Discovery Channel show, like when both How It's Made and Dirty Jobs dealt with quarrying and tire recycling, or when the latter dealt with cheesemaking and the former with cheese and butter making (along with the extraction of buttermilk), or when the latter dealt with sugarcane harvesting and the former with making sugar and molasses from it; I think some inadvertent synergy like this also happened with Mythbusters, like when both shows did something about cement.

For those of us who enjoy How It's Made more than anything, on weekdays when there isn't a marathon of some sort, the first thing to air after infomercials is an hour of How It's Made, which gets repeated at 5PM, and another hour block airs at noon and again at 7PM. The show also gets some airtime during the weekend.

Oh yeah, I have to echo the hatred of A Haunting and annoyance with Really Big Things, and I don't think Build It Bigger will be such a hit either.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2007 11:22

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:26

Syncopator: Jul 21, 2006; by Ozma

I almost forgot another instance of "inadvertent synergy": I just saw an episode of How It's Made about printing (packages), and I remembered an episode of Dirty Jobs about printing (posters).

I kinda wish I could catch an episode of Best Evidence, but it doesn't air again until 29 August at 1PM.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2007 09:53

Syncopator: Jul 21, 2006; by Ozma

I miss How It's Made. SHARK WEEK :argh:

# ¿ Jul 31, 2007 14:31

Syncopator: Jul 21, 2006; by Ozma

TheChirurgeon posted:

There's always the Science Channel?

I don't get that channel :sigh:

# ¿ Aug 1, 2007 02:13

Syncopator: Jul 21, 2006; by Ozma

^However, it did inspire the "Shark Week" on the forums! :waycool:

TheChirurgeon posted:

There's going to be 4 weeks of new Dirty Jobs, and then another new ep a week or two after that, and 5 weeks of new eps of Mythbusters, both starting next week.

That's awesome; I didn't think too highly of the "Snow Special" when I first saw it.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2007 18:09

Syncopator: Jul 21, 2006; by Ozma

YAY Shark Week is over! :neckbeard:

# ¿ Aug 6, 2007 23:48

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:26

Syncopator: Jul 21, 2006; by Ozma

Go Team Venture! posted:

How It's Made

I heard that the 9th season has been finished, and soon it should be coming to America :neckbeard:

# ¿ Sep 26, 2007 09:32

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > Discovery Channel Megathread