White Rabbit Project Season 1 Netflix Series Review

White Rabbit Project (2016-)
Season 1 (2016)

White Rabbit Project Season 1

Watch White Rabbit Project on Netflix
Starring: Grant Imahara, Tory Belleci, Kari Byron
Rating: TV-14

Plot
This series is a Mythbusters spin off featuring build team Grant Imahara, Tory Belleci, and Kari Byron as they explore pop culture, history, and science topics. They will NOT bust myths.

Verdict
While Netflix has stressed the team is not busting myths, this isn't far from doing just that. In each episode Grant, Tory, and Kari explore certain subjects, often choosing a couple to recreate and test.
It's an interesting fact show exploring little known historical events and news stories. It's very well produced with skits and various sets where the build team will parody one of the stories, though it can veer towards being over produced with the team showing up to a location and feigning surprise when cameras are present or over the top re-enactments.
I wish the science was more rigid so that viewers could begin to recreate or at least attempt their own experiments. White Rabbit Project assumes we just liked the explosions in Mythbusters instead of the build process that led to that explosion. This show is pure entertainment, and it's disappointing that it isn't family friendly. If it weren't for some of the language this would be a great show to get kids interested in science.
Watch it.

Review
This re-imagines Mythbusters with a larger budget and no build team, which is funny since these hosts were the build team on Mythbusters. This just shows the final test, instead of how the test was created.

The White Rabbit Project team consists of Kari, Grant, and Tory.

Each episode follows a similar format. The team introduces the main topic and six related stories. The team explores two stories each, either providing an overview, testing it, or providing a reenactment. At the end of the show they round table discuss each topic rating it based on three criteria to determine which scam is the best, which device creates the largest G force, or which man made super power is the most attainable.

Episode 1 - Which of these six super powers can the team create?

While this isn't Mythbusters, it feels very similar but with production values off the charts. It packs a lot into each episode, though some of the stories are superficial. The one liners they attempt to include can get tiring. The segment in episode one with Kari controlling Tory's movements went on a bit long. Tory shows up to a nice dinner and is surprised to see cameras. We're not dumb, we know his reaction is fake, but the show often attempts to make this show feel unscripted, wasting valuable time. It looks like the muscle control device is an Arduino or Rasberry Pi, and the show should have mentioned the micro-controller. This is less science and more pure entertainment.

Episode 3 -The team discusses the best scam artists.

The lack of explanation for a science based show is surprising. This could easily encourage kids to conduct their own mock experiments, but the show doesn't provide that foundation or instruction on how to create or test an idea. The shop skips over the foundations entirely. Exploring fewer stories would provide more time to explain the process. In episode five Grant drills through a concrete wall, showing how one attempts such a thing like in the grandpa gang robbery, but I'd like to see how he made the wall itself. Did he hit rebar like he mentioned, did he even put rebar in the wall? This show assumes that the audience just liked the explosions in Mythbusters, not the process and planning that comprised the entire episode before that explosion occurred. I don't want to see just the test, but how they set up the test. It avoids almost anything that could be considered a tutorial or background.

Episode 10 - What is the fastest experience?

Each episode concludes with the team ranking the subjects based on three predetermined criteria, with one being an X factor value. The results are often expected, but recap the craziest World War II schemes like trying to dose Hitler with estrogen, the scam that bears the name of its creator Charles Ponzi, how far away we are from true hover boards, and the earliest implementation of the animated gif among others. It's certainly interesting and I hope they explore fewer topics and use the extra time to provide more detail on their tests and the stories discussed. Make this show more of a blue print for how children, or anyone, could begin to understand how the world around them is put together.