Doing DaVinci

Let me start out by saying that Leonardo da Vinci is one of my heroes, and that I hate reality TV. I've only seen one episode(the siege ladder), and I'm not watching any more.

Reality TV always follows the same formula. Get a bunch of narcissistic type-A personalities together, give them a project, then while the project progresses, do one-on-one interviews with them to let them snipe at each other while they state the blindingly obvious. Every once in a while, throw in a curve ball, like in this case, a man named Flash who has done more drugs than Robert Downey Jr. and Keith Richards combined, has a counterproductive seat-of-the-pants ethic toward carpentry, and when he doesn't get his way, complains loudly and annoyingly. That is why I hate reality TV. Plus, this isn't even reality. In reality, Flash would have been fired within an hour.

Personally, I have no idea why this show has to be an hour long. I wish they would cut out the backbiting and just show the carpentry in 30 minutes. I also wish they'd show more of the history of da Vinci, because that's who the show is ultimately about, not a bunch of knuckleheads who need rehab and anger management.

Leonardo Da Vinci conceived some really neat ideas and this show doesn't do them justice. As the other reviewers have mentioned, there is little to no focus on the science between the prototype they're making... just the drama that goes into building it.

Believe it or not Discovery there are people out there who are interested in more than just TV drama. I would love to learn about Da Vinci and how he came up with the ideas so far ahead of his time and what really makes these prototypes tick. This would have been the perfect opportunity to make learning about engineering interesting but instead we get to spend an hour watching people complain about each other.

I have watched two episodes so far, and unfortunately I am in total agreement with vegaslover. When I saw the previews for the show, I thought "Wow, what a great concept-- they could do so much with that!" However, within a few minutes of watching the first episode, it became clear that they had missed the mark. Basically they have taken the production model of "American Chopper" and applied it to Leonardo da Vinci.

Perhaps that was the way they pitched it, as they felt it was the only way they could get it green-lighted. The trouble is, having a bunch of guys acting like a-holes and complaining about each other and confronting each other--it works for the context of building custom motorcycles (I guess, though I was never very fond of AC), but not for this.

Fact is, watching on-camera interviews of people complaining is not informative, not entertaining, and not worthy of the subject matter: the work of the great Leonardo. If only they would focus on the engineering, construction, and yes--add more historical context! Pointing out the difficulties encountered, fine--but airing the shouting matches drags the whole thing down.

I don't know, perhaps that approach would render it too esoteric for popular consumption, but it is a real shame to see something that could be so cool come up so short.

The idea of building machines from Leonardo's sketches is really great. It would be interesting to see how well they would fare.

The show, however, is bad. It's done just like American Chopper. By that I mean there's more complaining about other people than actually working. There is so much talking and complaining about other crafters that is not entertaining nor insightful nor good to know. Instead of filming short interviews with them (reality show style) they could show the science behind how the design works, some history of Leonardo da Vinci ... anything.

I feel disappointed that these kind of reality shows are getting into Discovery Channel's airtime. I like informative and interesting documentaries and shows a lot more.