It's official: Discovery Channel is a festering pile of shit

[Aaron]

The only show I tune in for Discovery is "How It's Made". It's perhaps the only program worth watching.

Mythbusters is pretty good, though their firearms episodes are kind of pointless. The result is usually painfully obvious right after they lay it out.

[andrewgpaul]

The majority of TV has gone down in quality over the last decade. Even the flagship documentary and investigative shows of the BBC like Panorama have caused controversy for the wrong reasons. Namely for scaremongering or flat out bad research.

I think this is being pretty selective, frankly, while it's true of most TV, the BBC (and channel 4) have peaks and troughs fairly regularly. Have I Got News For You and Top Gear, for instance, are far more entertaining and slickly presented than they ever were 10 years ago.

Actually, Top Gear is a prime example of the issue; originally, it was mostly informative; reviews of family cars, segments on how to buy a decent used car, or road safety, etc. Now, it's pure entertainment. Last week's was a good example. "Let's take a look at this family car here ... ah, fuck it, let's drive another £500,000 supercar round the track again". Granted, its audience has ballooned (because people who aren't interested in a magazine programme about cars can still enjoy the antics), but it's not the same programme it used to be (that'd be Fifth Gear on Channel 5)

[Darth Wong]

The only show I tune in for Discovery is "How It's Made". It's perhaps the only program worth watching.

Mythbusters is pretty good, though their firearms episodes are kind of pointless. The result is usually painfully obvious right after they lay it out.

The problem with Mythbusters is that there aren't enough good and widely believed myths to make a long-running show out of it. So it didn't take them too long to start doing really stupid myths that almost no one seriously believes anyway, or so-called "myths" which seem totally reasonable and which you can tell to be almost certainly true by the time they're done describing them.

[Flagg]

The only show I tune in for Discovery is "How It's Made". It's perhaps the only program worth watching.

Mythbusters is pretty good, though their firearms episodes are kind of pointless. The result is usually painfully obvious right after they lay it out.

The problem with Mythbusters is that there aren't enough good and widely believed myths to make a long-running show out of it. So it didn't take them too long to start doing really stupid myths that almost no one seriously believes anyway, or so-called "myths" which seem totally reasonable and which you can tell to be almost certainly true by the time they're done describing them.

Yeah, they've started doing some of the Hollywood shit lately and I really like those. I'm honestly shocked by some of the cliche shit that everyone just takes for granted that's complete horseshit.

[Admiral Valdemar]

I think this is being pretty selective, frankly, while it's true of most TV, the BBC (and channel 4) have peaks and troughs fairly regularly. Have I Got News For You and Top Gear, for instance, are far more entertaining and slickly presented than they ever were 10 years ago. Plus there's the occasional gem from drama and documentary (the power of the Earth series recently, for instance is quite good, and let's not forget the HD sexstravaganzas of the blue planet and planet earth), and on the whole panorama is quite good.

I never really watched the Discovery channel, so I don't know, but I find the recent offerings of the BBC like Have I Got News For You, Nevermind the Buzzcocks, Spooks, Doctor Who, the nature documentaries, the news, BBC online and Top Gear alone are worth the license fee.

I'm guessing that this ghost and ufo bullshit is just a shitload cheaper to produce and therefore buy.

All valid, but I'm referring only to current affairs and documentary programmes, not entertainment shows.

[RogueIce]

-I saw a commercial the other day on Court TV, saying that in January they'll be revamping the channel into "TruTV" (reality show bullshit).

Well for that, I think they're mostly doing stuff like COPS, Forensic Files, and similar shows like that. IOW, actual reality instead of game shows and stuff.

Which is pretty much what they've been doing now anyway, I guess they're just being more accurate about it, or want to open it up to more than just law enforcement-related shows (which they've had anyway but don't make much sense for "Court" TV).

Some of it is kinda silly, but at least they're not doing Survivor-type shows on there, at least not that I've seen.

Then again, with the Writer's Strike and all, I suppose I can't blame them: now they really don't have to worry about it if it happens again (or is it still ongoing?). IIRC, that's how COPS came to be, in part.

[Phantasee]

National Geographic was a huge let down when we got it. I haven't watched Discovery Channel in years, but I thought that maybe NatGeo would be better.

Of course, their magazine isn't really as good as it used to be either.

[Aaron]

The problem with Mythbusters is that there aren't enough good and widely believed myths to make a long-running show out of it. So it didn't take them too long to start doing really stupid myths that almost no one seriously believes anyway, or so-called "myths" which seem totally reasonable and which you can tell to be almost certainly true by the time they're done describing them.

Pretty much. I've noticed that they've resorted to doing alot of myths sent in on the fan site. Some shows have nothing but fan myths. And they all fit your description, I must conclude that most Mythbusters are fucking stupid.

[Molyneux]

The problem with Mythbusters is that there aren't enough good and widely believed myths to make a long-running show out of it. So it didn't take them too long to start doing really stupid myths that almost no one seriously believes anyway, or so-called "myths" which seem totally reasonable and which you can tell to be almost certainly true by the time they're done describing them.

Pretty much. I've noticed that they've resorted to doing alot of myths sent in on the fan site. Some shows have nothing but fan myths. And they all fit your description, I must conclude that most Mythbusters are fucking stupid.

It's a show where they blow shit up in great quantities, gleefully, and have some real occasional educational content. Plus, the junior Mythbusters are hot.

It might not be high art, but it's better than, well, pretty much everything on American TV since Justice League and Batman Beyond got cancelled...

[Aaron]

It's a show where they blow shit up in great quantities, gleefully, and have some real occasional educational content. Plus, the junior Mythbusters are hot.

It might not be high art, but it's better than, well, pretty much everything on American TV since Justice League and Batman Beyond got cancelled...

I won't argue with that, as you've hit all the pros for it. I think what your missing though is that Mike and I are pointing out that it started out great and has slid down to somewhere around good-fair. Is it a myth if the average person hasn't heard of it?