I am vaguely disgruntled about educational TV this weekend. Normally if I don't have travel plans or movies to go see I like to veg out and watch assorted science type programs on a lazy Sunday. But the History Channel has apparently become the Ice Road Truckers Channel, Discovery had a Dirty Jobs marathon that proved Mike Rowe is one of those good things you can get too much of, and the Travel Channel was one long endlessly looping Disney infomercial.

It's pretty bad when you find yourself yearning for Patrick Stewart to narrate how dragons co-existed with the dinosaurs.

My usual fallback when nothing else is on is to go to OnDemand and pull out whatever ep of The Universe looks good. I like those space documentary shows, because they usually do a good job of making something that is literally cosmic understandable to me.

Also, now that I've got a DVR, I've kept a few eps of Top Gear on tap for watching when I can't stand what on the tube.

But the History Channel has apparently become the Ice Road Truckers Channel

That and the "Tougher in Alaska" and "Ax Men", both of which I am less than enthused about. History used to be about history that appealed to everybody, not just hairy men with beer going "ugh, me tough" from their sofa. The "Ice Road" stuff was a marathon to preface the new episodes starting whenever (this week, next week?)

I'll take day long Mike Rowe over what-his-face in Man vs. Wild. Saturday was even more suck for educational TV than Sunday was.

With you on that—I find I'm skeptical about the first thing one should do in any wilderness survival situation being to strip off one's clothes and perform calesthenics.

I normally like Rowe, but after a couple of episodes he moves from "entertainingly snarky" to "smug smart-ass" with the constant flip remarks to people who put up with literal crap on the job every day. I think I can watch Mythbusters marathons a lot more happily because there are 5 different personalities interacting.

What the hell is Ax men? This is the second time I have seen it referenced today! (The first was in Pete Wentz's blog, and the way he writes, he could have meant "X-Men" for all I know!)

It's a candid reality show about loggers.

Weird? Do they eat oatmeal? He said it made him want to eat oatmeal.

I haven't seen any of the episodes of Ax Men, but the previews make it clear that pretty much every one of the guys featured on the show has, at some point in their career, cut off some part of their body.

America's Best Dance Crew: I enjoyed the audition special, but none of the crews really stood out to me the way that Jabbawookeez or Kaba Modern did from the very beginning. Cannot believe that they put the hair flinging, Rutgers dance team through although really I thought that the East Coast teams just kinda didn't bring it in general. I don't know that the Latinas would've been a ton better. I thought that the pop collar southern kids were actually really, really good. The judges were right about the cheerleader faces, though. They have got to go. I thought the "theatrical" group that did all the footwork was better than the other crew, but once the whole deaf dancer storyline kicked in, they were clearly going to get through. Thought the West Coast crews were by far the strongest of the bunch. I probably would've taken the Filipino crew over Fanny Pack. Not that they were not good dancers, they were. Very clean, very technical. Their style just did not seem to match the show at all. I loved the Las Vegas b-boys, thought they were so cute and Soul Supreme were amazing (although perhaps a little too much like Jabba without the masks).

And I really think Shane, JC and Lil Mama are the best reality show judges of all. Knowledgable, honest, give real critiques and suggestions for what they would like to see next time so that the crews can improve. I hope Randy is taking notes.

NFNS - I can't believe it but I actually liked Lisa this week.

Maybe getting up in the middle of the night made her focus on the basics, not the yadda yadda.

And I really think Shane, JC and Lil Mama are the best reality show judges of all. Knowledgable, honest, give real critiques and suggestions for what they would like to see next time so that the crews can improve.

True fact.