a nice review of Pawn Stars
http://www.slate.com/id/2256620?wpisrc=newsletter
I don't watch much TV, but this show is growing on me. My only complaint is that it doesn't show or even mention the background research that I'm sure HAS to go into evaluating some of the stuff brought into the shop. There is NO WAY some of these guys, (I don't care how expert they are), can just nonchalantly identify and declare the value of some of the stuff brought in.
My big example of this was one dude bringing in a set of Soviet-era launch keys. Now, I knew what they were, or at least were supposed to be. And Rick, the owner, correctly surmised that anyone in a machine shop could duplicate them, (absolutely true, they're not super-sophisticated keys - they don't have to be). But they call in some clown from the local museum who is supposedly an "expert" on Soviet nuclear paraphernalia, (sure, right, in Las Vegas). This dude comes in, looking like a god damned refugee from a Mennonite farm, and immediately announces that he knows that the keys are authentic, what they're made of, and that they belong to a space launch console. Snap! Just like that. Just at a glance. Fucking no way. Especially in that burg.
There's no way Mr. Horse and Buggy, director of the museum of poker chips and slot machines is a spot-on expert on Soviet top secret ephemera. And that's what bugs me. I know that that git had to go home, and spend hours on the internet, in books, and on the phone with people who are real Soviet scholars to figure out what these things were before making his pronouncement. And I wish TV at least acknowledged that. You have to work. Research is important. It's not all instantaneous gratification.
But it's still an entertaining show. I just wish it were a realistic one.
I don't watch much TV, but this show is growing on me. My only complaint is that it doesn't show or even mention the background research that I'm sure HAS to go into evaluating some of the stuff brought into the shop. There is NO WAY some of these guys, (I don't care how expert they are), can just nonchalantly identify and declare the value of some of the stuff brought in.
My big example of this was one dude bringing in a set of Soviet-era launch keys. Now, I knew what they were, or at least were supposed to be. And Rick, the owner, correctly surmised that anyone in a machine shop could duplicate them, (absolutely true, they're not super-sophisticated keys - they don't have to be). But they call in some clown from the local museum who is supposedly an "expert" on Soviet nuclear paraphernalia, (sure, right, in Las Vegas). This dude comes in, looking like a god damned refugee from a Mennonite farm, and immediately announces that he knows that the keys are authentic, what they're made of, and that they belong to a space launch console. Snap! Just like that. Just at a glance. Fucking no way. Especially in that burg.
There's no way Mr. Horse and Buggy, director of the museum of poker chips and slot machines is a spot-on expert on Soviet top secret ephemera. And that's what bugs me. I know that that git had to go home, and spend hours on the internet, in books, and on the phone with people who are real Soviet scholars to figure out what these things were before making his pronouncement. And I wish TV at least acknowledged that. You have to work. Research is important. It's not all instantaneous gratification.
But it's still an entertaining show. I just wish it were a realistic one.
posted by mendip at
5:59 PM
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