I watched this when it first aired and recently watched it again, in part to remember all the people who have since died, and to see if my original opinion had changed. It did! I'm dropping my rating from a 5 to a 3 because it's even more excruciating now. I was reminded that even if (let's be generous) say 90% of the "reality drama" was manufactured, these guys are STILL the biggest bunch of egotistical, whiny, transparent and one-dimensional tool-bags ever to grace cable TV -with two exceptions. Josh Warman is an excellent scientist, and a credit to the profession. Tim Samaras and company as well, rest their sousl.
Casey and Timmer, however, seem to thrive on being the most colossal jackasses possible. When Casey spends 1% of the time claiming to care about the science (while alienating Wurman, his only link to science), and 99% of the time whining about his 1 in a million shot (for a movie which ironically apparently kind of...sucked), You can tell what his real motivation is: Money and Glory. That's it.
And Timmer... I get the impression he's the kind of guy who walks into a room, sleazily introduces himself to everyone, one by one, as "Hi. Reed Timmer. Extreme meteorologist". Hell, he's billed as that in the credits. Not content to simply be a meteorologist, he's *extreme*. While he at least has the education, his motives are blatantly financial as well. His being on the show was an unfortunate confluence of reality and bro culture that darn near killed Discovery channel.
Yes, the videos are good, and kudos to them for going out and getting them. But it gets really tiring, every time there's a storm to chase, to hear them practically wetting themselves with the same tired lines: "that's about to go huge!!!" and "that's going to be a huge tornado!!!" etc. All while canned heavy metal guitar relentlessly crunches away in the background. Meanwhile, Casey needs to act pissy, show us his sad face, and remind us -yet again- how much he really needs his money shot... Just in case we forgot since the previous chase 10 minutes earlier. Not since Roger in RENT has anyone been so singleminded.
If the show had focused more on Wurman, Samaras/ and the Vortex/Twstex projects, it would hav been so much better. Perhaps a little drier, maybe not quite as as "extreme", but a hell of a lot less annoying. Wurman and his laconic snarkiness could have carried the thing. Alas, it was not to be. At least now you can find tons of excellent videos on YouTube, and without all the whiny drama.
