TV-Reviewed

This episode of MythBusters focused on driving and golfing, neither of which I’m a pro at. Jamie and Adam took on the myth about being able to drive blind first. They each took a trip around a closed course with the other one in the back seat, guiding them. I found Adam to be a better driving assistant than Jamie so it was surprising Jamie was the one who was selected to take part in the other portions of the test.

After attempting to drive themselves, Jamie and Adam found an actual blind person to drive the car. Jamie did a very nice job of coaching the man, Jerry, around the course which was very freaky. It was a post-apocalyptic-looking city which the military used to use for all sorts of nasty tests.

After an impressive first run, Jerry got to drive again, but this time, Jamie was drunk. Jerry wasn’t able to drive nearly as well with the silly Jamie suckin’ down the hooch. Jerry did a lot of weaving, which made him look drunk. All of this, of course, came from a myth which was a true story. In England, a drunk man asked his blind friend to drive him home. The drunk man told him where to drive and ended up getting pulled over by the police. I thought it was a very nice myth to test. They did the right thing by getting an actual blind person for this myth.

Jerry drives Jamie around town

Elsewhere, Kari, Tory, and Grant were off working on a few golf myths. One had them swinging clubs in the ruff, trying to prove/disprove the myth that claimed trees are 90% air. I thought this was a pretty silly myth to test, but they’ve tested sillier myths before.

Since Tory was the only competent golfer among the, Grant was forced to assemble an air cannon to shoot golf balls from. Predictably, the team came to the conclusion that trees are not 90% air and that it isn’t very wise to try shooting your ball through the tree should you get stuck behind it. Only 25% of their shots made it through the tree.

The trio then took a trip to the local PG&E plant to do an electricity test. They’ve been to facilities like this one before. They proved that metal-cleated golf shoes do not increase your odds of being struck by lighting. Duh! The tiny amount of metal that is present is too close to the ground to attract lighting.

The last myth was from the sports movie Caddyshack, specifically the scene where Bill Murray blows up the golf course and sinks the putt. It’s been a while since I’ve seen this classic movie, but am surprised it’s taken MythBusters this long to showcase this myth, especially since there are explosives involved.

Although they did a good job in setting everything up, the guys failed on one key point: replicating the desired result of the myth. They used C4 and failed to get either the look of the explosion as shown in the movie or the sinking of the putt. They then used gasoline to replicate the look of the explosion and then went home.

What the hell?! What about sinking the putt? One of the things that I’ve always liked about this show is Jamie and Adam harping on if they find a myth is busted, then they try to replicate the desire result. Here, the guys just packed it up and went home without trying other explosives (or changing the spot of the explosion in relation to the hole) to sink the putt. I was really disappointed by their follow-through.

Rating: 6.5