7.5

Scrapheap Challenge - Jet Racer and Other Challenges

Geek is the new cool. I think I began my review of the first season of Chuck with the exact same sentiment, perhaps just shielding my own nerdy insecurities. But it seems these days that the geeks are doing all the cool shit on TV. We have Chuck the spy, the Mythbusters guys becoming cultural phenomenons, but before them there were the geniuses of Scrapheap Challenge. The program is a reality game show of sorts, where two teams compete against each other to make a working contraption within ten hours. The teams then face off their contraptions and the winner moves onto the next round, and eventually the series ends with one winner. It’s a simple idea with an entertaining payoff that makes you wonder why they it hasn’t been done before.

Scrapheap challenge is made all the more entertaining by the enthusiasm of its hosts. Robert Llewellyn, who fans might recognise as Kryten from Red Dwarf, often seems like he will vibrate right off the screen. He seems genuinely interested in the goings on of the team, while executing some horrendous puns with such fervour that you might actually find yourself chuckling at. He is joined by Lisa Rogers, who matches him in the excitement department. Both do a really good job with their duties and look like they are having a blast.

The contestants themselves are an interesting bunch too. This series includes University students, Policemen, the Royal Navy and Air Force, an all women team, a group of 50’s hipsters and more. Watching the way the teams think and interact with each other is a big part of the entertainment, and looking at the different methods they go about building the same thing builds up excitement for the payoff.

Of course the real stars of the series are the machines themselves and this series has them in spades. From giant dart throwers to full blown tanks, Scrapheap Challenge certainly is host to some weird and wonderful contraptions that one would never think of building. Watching them pay off in the end is often a highly entertaining sight. Watching cars do wheelies or the two teams scramble to build a working fire engine is a sight to behold. This season includes twelve wacky contraptions to enjoy, and while some episodes may not sound as interesting as others, they are all interesting in execution just to see how they are pulled off.

Scrapheap Challenge is great fun to watch. Gear heads or anyone interested in machines will be delighted by the stuff that is assembled, it’s like the Backyard Blitz of extremely cool gadgets. Even if you aren’t at all interested in this sort of stuff, it is still quite a bit of fun to watch an episode or two, just to see the host’s excitement and the way the contestants react to each other.  Scrapheap Challenge is a refreshing change of pace for those that think of Big Brother or I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here as reality shows, or those who are bored of Wheel of Fortune and Who Wants to be a Millionaire as game shows. Scrapheap Challenge offers something a little different, a little off beat, and a lot of fun. Check it out.

The disc contains no special features.