Saturday, September 8, 2012

Science for Dummies

Why must they always gear science shows toward nitwits? What about the rest of us, the ones who can think?

I just tried to watch an episode of "How the Universe Was Made" on the Science channel. Oy. The narrator might as well have been Mr. Rogers. He spoke s-l-o-w-l-y. Very s-l-o-w-l-y. And as usual, everything was illustrated with simpleton video, like cars crashing. Because no one can understand about asteroids in the Kuiper Belt hitting each other unless they see cars crashing.

It drives me crazy. Please make some science shows for people with brains. We'd love to watch stuff like that -- but there isn't any. Morgan Freeman's show, "Through the Wormhole" is the closest thing to an intelligent science show. But there, the problem is that he presents authentic geniuses and wingnuts, without telling you who's who. Plus the show tries really hard to present everything as strange. It's the way reality is. It's not strange at all. But they do present things with impact and style, so I guess I have to admit someone's at least opened the door to decent TV science shows. (And yes, NOVA is a Mr. Rogers show. It doesn't get my vote.)

Anyone out there agree (or disagree)? The Mr. Rogers approach drives me nuts.