MBW, AFO, JFC & co. - July 19

Now, we shall briefly switch our attention from AFO onto ‘Monster Bug Wars’ (MBW). No, I am not talking about how Kim and Kanye tried to double-team Taylor Swift and it backfired upon them; meanwhile, Kim’s sister Khloe tried to take-on Chloe Bennet, and it also backfired, while others, like Snooki from ‘Jersey Shore’ and Selena Gomez are trying to put their two cents in without getting involved in this for real. I am talking about an actual show, which went down in 2011-2012, instead. It would depict two sorts of invertebrates (well, arthropods – insects, arachnids, centipedes, etc.) in a stimulated natural environment, where they would fight each other as gladiators would. Put otherwise, this is AFO, only with invertebrates, and for real.

And? And, perhaps, MBW was a show that could be considered as good as AFO. Yes, there was less science, (proportionally), but there was less entertainment as well, paradoxically. By showing live subjects, MBW introduced the element of chaos into their fights, so to speak. The combatants’ behavior is unpredictable, as is the outcome, for MBW shows how a tarantula can lose to a giant cricket, for example, or how a spitting spider can overwhelm a jumping spider. Size and strength do not matter…okay, they do, but not exclusively, not unlike how these qualities were being depicted in AFO back in 2004. Here, between venom, silk, swarming, etc., a smaller arthropod can overwhelm a bigger one…sometimes. The ants, using their swarm tactic, win over their individually larger opponents, as they do in real life…

What about the flaws? Well, from a technical P.O.V., MBW has no flaws. It was (one of) the final evolutions that such a show as AFO could evolve into. The other ‘branch’ was JFC, mentioned in some earlier post, when a show is done away with the actual science altogether, and all that is left is speculation: whether or not an Utahraptor can defeat a Gastonia; a Ceratosaurs – an Allosaurus; and a(n prehistoric American) lion – a (prehistoric short-faced) bear. The last one even sounds slightly like an AFO episode, but it was nowhere as professional or precise. AFO was done…scientifically, especially the season’s/series’ finale, (which is definitely a separate discussion), while JFC wasn’t – it was more like ‘The Future is Wild’, (TFW), which discussed speculative animals of the future, (which is neither here nor there), and JFC discussed speculative fights between dinosaurs, and between other prehistoric animals, and for their season’s/series’ conclusion, they discussed the K-T mass extinction…in a very unprofessional way. Period. MBW, AFO, and TTAKD – they all have professionalism in their composition, in one way or another. JFC did not. As a result, it lasted only one season, (though its host, Dinosaur George, hanged around for some time in the future), while MBW lasted for at least two. The moral?

The years 2011 and 2012 had more scientifically integral shows on TV than 2016 does. Very sad. However, that is life. Did team Kimye win, or did Taylor? Who knows?

PS: Who cares?