MYTH: There's nothing good on TV during the summer

I'll admit that for some time television has been pretty much a barren wasteland with only The Mole and old AWA Wrestling on ESPN classic keeping me moderately entertaining.

But that changed this week as Mythbusters returned. Yay! Well, actually, they were back last week with their Shark Week special, but I found that to be a somewhat bloated, uninteresting show. However, their first episode back this week was a doozy. Two excellent myths that were both interesting and entertaining. Adam and Jamie were testing whether or not using explosives was the best way to tenderize meat. Typically when they do myths aimed simply at blowing stuff up I roll my eyes because then tend to be repetitive (myth turns out false, so let's just end the show with a huge explosion to appease simple-mided folks). However, with this one it wasn't all about the big bang. They came up with a variety of cool ways to tenderize the meat and they actually tried making it scientific as possible.

As for the build team, they were out to figure out whether or not being stressed out causes you to use more fuel when you drive. I was highly suspicious at the onset of this myth as to how they would truly be able to test this, but they ended proving me wrong. Not only did they have a decent method for testing the amount of gas used, but they went crazy with the means to stress out Tori and Grant. That was some truly cringe-worthy TV in a good way. It seemed everyone had a lot of fun with both myths and it was great to have this show back.

There was also a new show that debut this week trying to capitalize on the Mythbusters popularity. Food Detectives premiered on the Food Network this week with former Iron Chef America judge Ted Allen testing out various food myths. This week's episode explored such things like if double dipping actually is unsanitary, is ginger a good cure for naseau, and the best way to cut an onion without crying. I love when they do food myths on Mythbusters, but they typically opt for ones with explosions, so this show could fill that void nicely. However, while the myths were good, the show's presentation was a bit too campy and corny for me. We'll see whether or not this improves with future episodes. Still, when there aren't a lot of choices, I'll gladly take this over most of what's out there. If you want to check it out for yourself, Food Detectives airs on Tuesdays at 9pm on the Food Network.