I just caught this on tv - Weaponizers is a new show on the Discovery Channel that’s a bit of a cross between BattleBots, Junkyard Wars, and Car Wars.
Two teams customize vehicles with armor and weaponry, both standard (machineguns, rockets) and improvised (bulldozer scoop battering ram, baseball-launcher-turned-cannon, trunk-mounted powersaw) and compete in head-to-head competition, remote-controlling the vehicles from underground bunkers (there are multiple cameras mounted on the vehicles).
In the episode I saw, the teams had to compete to either protect or destroy fuel depots in round 1, and then faced off in a head-to-head deathmatch in round 2. The team that wins round 1 gets a stationary .50-cal machinegun emplacement as a bonus in round 2.
It’s very reminiscent of Junkyard Wars in the first half of the show when the teams are kitting out their vehicles, complete with chalkboard-diagrams of their designs. The second half, where they actually compete, is somewhat hit-or-miss, as the drivers seemed to have trouble at times properly maneuvering their vehicles (I’m guessing limited FOV with the car-mounted cameras), but just the fact that they compete to destroy each other makes it interesting.
At the very least, I’m going to give the series a few episodes to see if it’s worth continuing to watch.
Just strap death row inmates being offered a last chance of freedom into each car. Forget this remote control nonsense. Just don’t frame Jason Statham for murder and put him into one of the cars. Dude will not appreciate that.
Man, I’m sorry, but this show is not just terrible and dumb - it’s obviously fake as can be. The explosions are faked, the guns are clearly not actually firing real bullets, and it is, in general, a total pile of bullshit. From the ‘explosive rockets’ which are clearly store-bought fireworks to the ‘.30 cal machine guns’ that fire without creating bullet holes or any visible damage whatsoever, to the ‘underground control bunker’ this show is fake from start to finish. It’s interesting to see them come up with ‘pimp my car: mad max’ ideas, but it’s meaningless when the competition is so clearly fake.
Last night was really the clincher - aside from the fact that a .50 caliber machine gun would tear either of those cars into pieces, every time they ‘fired the gun’, they cut to a reaction shot of flashpots being detonated, as if that’s what it looked like when a gun hit something. I don’t know why they felt like they had to fake such a great concept, but that’s what they’re doing, and it kills any enjoyment or interest I might have.
really neat concept, really poor fake execution. I saw the same episode as Q - not only were the rockets obviously just fireworks, but when they fired them they had both vehicles sitting immobile so they (I presume) get the shot.
I had never heard of this show before stumbling across it last night. The concept is just about perfect, but the execution is total crap. Everything seems to be heavily scripted and ends up unpalatable.
Those “assault rockets” were amazingly useless. No one shoots while on the move at all. The gimmick weapons are a huge waste of time and effort. There was even a part where I laughed out loud - one of the teams was going to test their .30 cal on a burned out car and the narrator actually said “for added realism the crew from <whoever demolitions> is rigging the target with explosives”
They may have actual weapons in those vehicles, but if they do, they’re firing blanks. The biggest giveaway is that you will never see a shot of bullets hitting something. They show you the gun firing, and then they either cut to a reaction shot of one team or the other screaming for the camera, or they cut to a shot of something exploding. You’ll notice they do that a whole lot. That’s because nothing even close to real is actually happening there, at any point in time. And there’s also the simple fact that a reality series on Discovery isn’t particularly likely to be destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars of military surplus hardware on a regular basis, particularly when said hardware is strapped to remote control rigs.
Yes, great promo, terrible show. Why would you fake everything like that? I was certain it was fake the moment they “went hot” with the gums then just walked in front of the cars. Plus the animations showing where they were driving before they actually did? Weak.
Yeah. If someone actually makes this show it could be awesome. But this show… not so much. Haven’t seen the 2nd and 3rd eps yet, but the 1st was not good.
