Crazy Contraptions
Contents |
Host
Co-hosts
Judge: Zach Umperovitch
Insert presenter: Shini Somara
Broadcast
Optomen for Channel 4, 29 April 2022 to present
Synopsis
A sort of inversion of The Great Egg Race. Teams compete to create "chain reaction machines" to carry out a simple task in the most complicated way, for example stopping Hammond from having to get out of his bath to feed his dog at the other end of his mansion. In one section they have to demonstrate a particular scientific principle and in another they need to incorporate a particular object. Knockout series structure.
Part of a machine built by team "Social Mediocrity" to flip a switch on the kettle at the right of the screen.Unfortunately, with so many moving parts (and on this occasion that's not a metaphor), there's very little time to focus on the various engineering challenges in any depth, and then the finale is critically undermined by choppy editing. To show off a chain reaction machine properly, the camerawork needs to be as well choreographed as the machine itself, capturing the whole thing in a single flowing shot if at all possible. 48 edits in 70 seconds really won't cut it - or rather it will cut it, to ribbons, robbing us and the teams of the big "wow" moment at the end. All a bit of a shame, because this could have been a fun twist on the build-a-machine genre, if only the contestants' ingenuity had been matched on the production side.
Key moments
Lack of confidence in your central conceit ahoy: Hammond asked the contestants to carry out a task without making him move, yet gave the teams up to three interventions. Eh?
Trivia
Officially billed as Richard Hammond's Crazy Contraptions.
The heats aired at 8pm on Fridays, with subsequent episodes shunted off at 10:55pm the Sunday before (i.e. with just over 50 hours separating episodes 4 and 5). Possibly the viewers were put off by Hammond flaunting wealth in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
See also
Pictures
They had the "social distancing" thing sorted, though.