Outrageous Acts of Science

A technical show like this talks about speeds and weights constantly. And every minute or two they will mention a speed or weight, then feel like they need to convert from mph to kph or lb to kg. Once you notice it, it's hard to unhear and it happens at least every minute or two. Every single short little segment they highlight is a "wonder" or something "crazy" with speed or weight or computers, so you get the idea. Constantly telling us conversions.

"This plane is traveling at 100 mph, or 160 kph." "This glider weighs 100 pounds, or 220 kilograms." Constantly.

It's an American show, so keep it simple, I can convert in my head, I'm sure others watching can as well.. Can't watch it now.

With the grossly over-publicized demise of Mythbusters on the horizon, The Discovery Channel is cramming its schedule with this production, and desperately trying to funnel thrills fans towards this smorgasboard of natural, man-made and scientific phenomena. The hour long show gives you 20 snippets of one or another slices of "science", from blowing up a house to shooting a basketball from the top of a dam. In amongst the excitement we have a bunch of real scientists giving us the low down on what we just saw. The problem is, there's just not enough really interesting stuff to make me willing to watch the dud snippets or the sometimes absurd interjections of the experts. So while I thought that this was a potential replacement for Mythbusters (maybe one of the great background TV shows of all time), on balance it's just too annoying to watch.

Outrageous Acts of Science or You Have Been Warned is one of these shows which lists 20 Youtube videos, but not just - the show focuses more on the experiments or just situations which offer some scientific substance, at least for the most part.

There are a group of scientists explaining things happening in these videos. It is fun to test yourself and trying to figure out what is actually going on before the actual cause of the experiment is revealed. Also this show allows you to relate your own knowledge either from school or actual life to some really spectacular experiments, achievements or just unfortunate or awesome happenings.

Yes, the show has its flaws. Some of the videos don't go with the episode subtitle very well, the subtitles themselves can be a little blurry and not saying much and some videos are really rather obvious, requiring no expert analysis. But in the end of the day, these make up just minority and there really is a lot to enjoy, discover or simply make some connections between the theory and real life. That's why I think this show is really great. Plus the expert team is universally nice as well.

I've seen few of the shows on TV, which feature online videos and they've all been really rather dull. This one however is really enjoyable. In fact, I actually consider this one of the better shows on Discovery channel, so I'd really suggest to give this one a go.

8/10

IT is disgusting what the formerly educational/science channels have fallen to. This is not just like the show Jacka**...it is far WORSE. The cast/producers of the MTV show had a hard and fast rule. NO user submissions would ever be shown on the air. None would even be watched so there was nothing to be gained by doing dangerous stunts. Outrageous Acts of Science, or shows like The Science of Stupid on the National Geographic Channel, of course SAY "Don't try this at home." but the announcer may as well be winking while saying it, and follow it up with "But if you DO...you may just see yourself on this show some day!" So unlike MTV, these channels are encouraging stupid kids (who generally need no additional encouragement to be idiots) to endanger their lives with the hopes of getting their 15 minutes of fame. Totally irresponsible.

This show contains a lot of stuff that's amazing, really amazing. And outrageous. And extraordinary. And really, really cool. Did I mention all the presenters think the stuff shown is amazing and cool? Amazing clips and amazing presenters with not more than a one word vocabulary. Seriously, if you're older than 14, value your time and have the slightest discernment, give this trip a wide berth.