What's not to love? Robots destroying other robots! Fun commentary and lots of mechanical carnage.

I witnessed the Battlebots contests and filming twice here in San Francisco when Comedy Central was doing the show. I sincerely thought that they never captured the spirit or the true violence of the event. What still doesn't come across is how large and vicious these things are, but the present show does largely capture the spirit of the event instead of trying to gloss over it with lame humor and WWE- style antics.A shout out to the the talking heads, especially Chris and Ken who show real enthusiasm for the fights. That was completely missing from the old show.One thing has happened for the better with the actual event. The pure wedge bots that did nothing but try to upend or shove their opponents around have basically been eliminated. Good riddance!!! They were deathly boring and probably the reason the old show stretched so much.A great show, nothing to offend, and a way better than the old version. Give it a try.

The concept of "Battlebots" is two bots battling each other in an arena, controlled remotely by their handlers.Those who survive the first round of battles are seeded into a bracket for single elimination contests.Except in the case of a knockout (when the bot is unable to respond to a ten-second countdown), three judges decide the winner of each contest. Usually the outcome is obvious because of the damage delivered.There are rules, but they are not discussed much unless they come into play. But the competitors are aware of them.The different strategies employed in the building of these bots range from flame throwers to powerful flippers, and may include mini-bots that accompany the main bots for purposes of diversion or inflicting damage.The show is a nice blend of practical engineering and gladiator-style contests.

Battlebots is a show that can be enjoyed by everyone. However in its aim to please everyone, it forgets its major appeal - the robots fighting.The show has to last for a short season which is essentially to root of the problem. The robot fights themselves are limited to 10 minutes, however many of the fights are won in a few seconds. That means there is an extraordinary amount of fluff and time-filler to stretch the show.The builders' bios, while moderately interesting, last longer than the fights. There is a "boxing pre-game" type segment where non-technical people talk about utterly meaningless and arbitrary stats about the robots. One of the hosts is a MMA fighter. What insight does a MMA fighter have in robot fights? The answer is simple: none. While I am not overtly complaining, the director really seems to like Molly McGrath's legs. Obviously, she is there for the male audience and brings nothing but exceptionally good looks to the show.Another fault, which I believe is an unfortunate oversight, is the show could be an excellent vehicle for education in electronics, mechanical engineering, robotics, etc. The show offers no information on how anything works.Again, while I think the show if fun to watch, there is a lot that could be improved.