We all suffer from warning-label fatigue.
I mean, who even reads those things any more?
Especially when it comes to everyday household items and products, most of us assume we know what’s safe and what isn’t.
But the idea of the new Canadian series Never Ever Do This At Home is to test those accepted safety rules, just to see if we’re being lied to, I suppose.
Debuting Monday, May 6 with back-to-back episodes on Discovery, Never Ever Do This At Home is the first English-language adaptation of a TV format that has proven popular in several European countries. The Canadian version is co-hosted by Teddy Wilson (pictured above right) and Norm Sousa (pictured above left).
As Wilson says in the first episode, “The one place in the world where you’re supposed to be safe and sound is actually super dangerous, if you don’t follow the rules.”
To which Sousa adds, “On this show, we’re going to break all those rules, just to see what happens.”
The setting is a beautiful old farmhouse in Southwestern Ontario. Like, what did that poor house ever do to anyone?
If there’s a victim in Never Ever Do This At Home, it’s the house. It doesn’t get to wear safety goggles like those wimps Wilson and Sousa.
Anyway, this series taps into the defiant little kid that exists within all of us. You know, the one who bristles at authority and rules, and gets tired of being told “no” to virtually anything that sounds as if it might be fun.
“Don’t set off fireworks in the house,” we’re told. But what would happen if we actually did?
Fittingly, setting off fireworks in the house is the first experiment conducted in Never Ever Do This At Home. Let’s just say it’s a good thing there’s a team of firefighters close at hand.
For my viewing interests, Never Ever Do This At Home works best when it focuses on potential disasters that we all truly may have wondered about, such as the fireworks thing, or what would happen if you heated up a can of soup directly on the burner of a stove.
One of the experiments in the first episode involves the creation of a room-size, walk-in microwave oven, to see if it will thaw a gigantic frozen fish. A setup like that isn’t as interesting to me, because it’s not something any normal person ever has thought to do.
This series is more relatable when they stick those cans of soup on the stove, because there’s a far better chance a normal person at one point may have wondered, “So what really would happen if I did that?”
Never Ever Do This At Home has cameras capturing every angle of the mayhem, including highly specialized so-called “phantoms” that can record 2,650 frames per second for the ultimate in slow-motion replay.
Through its 13-episode first season, the series simultaneously focuses on the science behind what occurs, with experts in various fields brought in not only to explain what’s happening but to help maximize the destruction. This is a TV show after all.
Be advised, though: If you see a real-estate listing any time soon for a beautiful rural farmhouse that really looks great from the outside, be very, very wary.
bill.harris@sunmedia.ca
@billharris_tv
