The Discovery Channel (Review)

The Discovery Channel could not have a more self-explanatory name. This has got to be some of the most interesting and satisfying programming I have known of to date. There are so many informative shows from both ends of the discovery scale, and all in between.

When I briefly visited the Discovery Channel website I was very impressed with the amount of shows involving everything from the invention of new technology to man be stranded in the wilderness with minimal tools of survival.

To name a few of these shows would not be fair to other quality programming on the same network. But as the writer, I reserve the right to mention my favorites.

As of now, my favorite is a short and simple 30 minute show called'How It Is Made'. In this, we are shown the making of everyday household items or products that we have to take for granted. The producers of this show take us right into the factories and work fields to show us how a simple product can be difficult to manufacture and a complex product can be simple to manufacture.

But this show, by far, is not the only interesting programming on this network. I am going to name a few shows and briefly describe their content, so anyone who is not yet fully informed of what this programming entails , will be given disclosure and may come to be a fan themselves.

As I mentioned earlier, while on the Discovery Channel website, a simple preliminary observation of the different shows, revealed a minimum of 37 completely different programs with different topics. A few of my favorites are 'Daily Planet', a segment which brings us up to date on new technology and global issues which we may not be aware of. There is also a version of this show called 'Daily Planet' for the classroom, which follows the same format but it's topics are aimed towards young students(I wish they had it when I was a child).

Another of my favorite shows is 'Mythbusters'.This show is hosted by two humorous but highly intelligent men who use a warehouse, among other equipment, to test legendary scientific myths. Sometimes the results are not interesting at all,but watching the work that goes into performing these tests and watching the results are very satisfying and entertaining.

Yet another of my favorite shows is 'Man vs Wild'. The main and only character's name is Bear Grylls, and he is a trained outdoor survivalist. The outline of the show is basically the same for every episode. But the main difference is the geographical location in which he is placed. In each episode, the premise is that he is stranded in the wilderness with only a bottle of water, a knife and a flint. He guides the viewer through the wilderness while showing and explaining his step-by-step methods of survival.

While I also Have other favorite shows on this network, I will only mention them by name and not explanation. Some of these are 'Dirty Jobs', 'Extreme machines', 'Guinea pig(human)', and many others which have just as interesting titles and content as those I have briefly outlined.

I could go on for a while on the diversity of programming all involving extremely interesting content, but I have also discovered my time limits for this article.

To sum up my thoughts and opinions on the Discovery Channel; if I had to explain it in short sentence would be; this show is not just about the discovery of science, it is also about the discovery of knowledge.