James May's Man Lab

Hadn't there been for a really bad advertising, I wouldn't have reacted at all to this. "James May's Man Lab" has been advertised on "Discovery Channel" by an inane announcement that goes something like: "Men, we've been slaves of 'modernity' (!), we need to reclaim our manhood...". It's meant as a slight irony of course. We are, in fact, grown up boys and we still love toys, and the show aims to offer inspiring gadgets and concepts, outside of the ordinary, that might sparkle one's imagination, if only for a while.

Unfortunately, good intentions do not the show make. It's the content, and it's: shallow. The gadgets, the inventions and the ideas are pretty lackluster, primitive and unimaginative. I'm judging by a single episode, which may be a shame on my part, but... flinging doughnuts at the crowd with various contraptions, testing an obscure mathematical theory of luck by spilling a beer over one's head and trying one's hand at radio- commentating a horse race - isn't what might spark a boyish spirit in this viewer.

Then there is the host, James May, who has clearly seen better days in his career. He brings in some of Monty Python's style shenanigans, which is always good. But for such a show he is way too restrained, too English shall I say, to make it work. Furthermore, he looks tired and spent, and possibly has a drinking problem. The man is not devoid of charm or humor, to be sure. There is some humor there alright but pretty occasional, pretty sparse. Overall tone of the show isn't joyful or playful, but morose.

What's worse, there isn't much intelligence involved in all this, no great insight. Similar problem plagues another show of his "James May's 20th Century" which promised a lot but turned out pretty superficial and plodding. Maybe he should drop the habit of putting his name in titles of his shows. He's probably more popular in the UK than I'm aware of so it helps the ratings, but over here, where I live, "James May" quickly becomes the red flag for what to avoid.

This show has promise, as the premise is strong.

More and more men are becoming pretty useless, however this show seems more like a lark then an actual attempt to fix the problem.

If it is to be taken in less serious manner it will need better execution to become really great.

As of right now, it is very watchable and quite enjoyable. Pretty funny to boot.

James is great as usual.

His cohort of lads on the other hand, seem to lack screen presence. This though is not a big deal, since it's really all about James.

Have high hopes, looking forward to the next episode.

"Good afternoon, and welcome to the Lab for Men, a place where the calloused male hands firmly grasped the handle of the chainsaw, cutting into the wood new achievements!"

What we see turning this show?

James May. As was absolutely correctly noted, this is the best show in which James was able to show himself. And build something with my hands is really his calling. Besides, with this team as he is amazing how he has not built another nuclear submarine?

Format. 1 hour the viewer is invited to learn new things. Usually the number of these achievements from 4 to 6. And they are all varied, ranging from how to conquer a lady and ending with a way to produce toilet paper, or snow.

Oz Clarke. If You are not a fan of wines and the wine world, then You are unlikely to know that name. Oz Clarke is a wine guru, a professional sommelier, he is very ironic guy, which often helps James in the conquest of new developments in parallel drinking red or white.

If you have an hour of free time, and you want to have a good time turn on the show and welcome to the "Lab for Men!"

As far as entertainment goes it is quite difficult to beat Top Gear and its three hosts. Of the three, James May as always been, to my eyes, the most knowledgeable, truthful character, capable of conveying an interesting message, without resorting to the need of portraying a false persona, but simply being himself. In his last programme - Man Lab - James starts off with what I consider his best idea to date. However, I felt that although this was clearly a programme dear to him, he chose a crew that failed to show dedication to the goal of the programme. Somehow I felt that some looked at this as a task and not as an interesting opportunity to create good television. In a nutshell, my favourite TV Show from James May will continue to be Toy Stories (near perfect TV entertainment combined with a strong message), but I do hope BBC invests in a 2nd series of Man Lab, because the idea is there, ready to flourish. It just needs a better execution.