Discovery's 'Big Brain Theory': Not That Kind Of Nerd TV
Perhaps the most revolutionary thing about Discovery's nifty new science series The Big Brain Theory, hosted by Kal Penn, is how ordinary it is.
Right from the title, Big Brain plays into the same fascination with nerd culture that fuels The Big Bang Theory, and that fueled other reality shows like Beauty And The Geek and this season's King Of The Nerds. But while it does highlight the personalities of engineers and scientists, Big Brain is refreshingly devoid of comments about not dating, living with parents, or being socially awkward in some magnificently conspicuous way.
The structure is simple in Wednesday night's opener: a bunch of science types (most are young enough that it feels like a very grad-school vibe) form two teams, and they're given a challenge. Here, they each get a pickup truck loaded with explosives set to blow up if the g forces are too high, so they have to figure out how to cushion/decelerate/protect the box so that when the trucks run into each other head-on, they don't explode.