We love technology. Just in principle. Technology offers the promise of a better life. True, sometimes it only delivers a better life in the sense of having a truly cool new gadget, but this is one version of a better life.
Here are our recommendations for TV shows for those who love technology as much as we do. Sometimes the tech stuff in these shows saves people’s lives. Sometimes they’re just enviably cool and possibly imaginary gadgets. No matter.
- Leverage is a stylish show about a bunch of thieves who get together to deliver justice to bad guys, always with sleek devices. Our favorite is Hardison, who often proclaims that it’s “The Age of the Geek, baby. We rule the world.”
- Burn Notice is an updated MacGyvor with spies, violence, and somewhat crazed women. The characters on this show, enjoying Miami in their rayon shirts, take ordinary objects and make them into lethal weapons and surprisingly effective spy gear.
- How Stuff Works on the Discovery Channel is a nonfiction contender which mixes history and technology in a heady concoction. Admit it, you want to know how iron works, and even if you already know how beer is made, you’ll admire the camera work.
- Mythbusters gives viewers a chance to share in the innocent pleasure of real, highly competent technophiles who get a chance to confirm or disconfirm urban myths. Their glee when they blow things up (which they do at every opportunity) is contagious.
- Timewarp slows ordinary things down to the point at which they become an entirely new experience, and MIT’s Jeff Lieberman is there to interpret everything for our complete viewing pleasure.
- Numbers has mathematicians explaining basic things to one another in a way that would, in real life, be offensive. Apart from that, it’s a smart crime show with unusual depth of character and relationships.
- The Big Bang Theory is at the other end of the spectrum, being a situation comedy based on popular stereotypes of physicists and engineers, but we have to admit that we find it funny. Don’t watch it in mixed company– shoo the liberal arts majors out before it comes on.
- Modern Marvels shows you the coolest stuff out there. From the skinny on James Bond gadgets to the newest sports gear, engineering disasters to weaponry, Modern Marvels bring you maximum detail.
- Popular Science’s Future Of is an in-depth examination of the future of security, sex, superhumans, and all kinds of other stuff with Baratunde Thurston. Mini-documentaries with interviews show all the wires and buttons and everything.
One of our IT guys responded to this topic with, “My People don’t watch TV.” He admitted that he watches these programs on his computer. We think maybe he’s too literal-minded.
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