The 'false jeopardy' that these programmes have to abide by. always annoys me.
well, the viewers don't like competent displays that seem inaccessible. Nobody feels good if they see someone doing things they discern that they couldn't do unless it's gee golly stuff ("wow..I could never sing like ella fitzgerald!!")
My kids love the format - it's like pro wrestling - first the intro, very friendly. Then the build up of the task "uh oh, I don't know how we'll do it with such limited options and equipment!!", then the initial start ("look they're really making great time!!"), then the disaster (oh, we're behind schedule or something broke or isn't available), and then the closer in the last several minutes where everything miraculously comes together.
In the first season of forged in fire, murray carter finished one of the early stages in 2/3rds the time or something - I was impressed, but I get what he was thinking - he's experienced, he performed the things that he would do to make a good knife blank before finishing in the next steps, and there was no reason to overdo anything. Plus, murray's a little smug (he's well known on knife and razor forums), and he looked like he really enjoyed the time crossing his arms and looking at the camera showing how good he was.
What he and the other professional maker did in short time then with their projects was nothing short of spectacular - they did superb technical and aesthetic work. There was no real drama and in the end, they used some torture machine that did manage to bend murray's sword, but his sword was clad, designed to bed and not break while allowing the core to be really hard. The reality is it was technically fine and the torture test went beyond what whacking anyone with a sword would cause, and an armorer would hammer the sword back to straight without anything more technical than that. It was a superb display.
The kids were completely bored and couldn't manage to watch the whole episode.
The later season opened up with a bunch of inexperienced guys trying to use coal forges (which few do) in bright sun with snow surrounding. Several of them heated steel so hot that when they picked up their billets, they broke in half (if the grains get large enough in steel due to overheating, it can break under its own weight before it cools). the end of the episode had some efforts that nobody would ever show publicly, but the kids loved it.
