If you have not already seen Mythbusters, then congratulations–you’re about to get a dose of awesome on a scale you had not previously imagined possible.  Today, thanks to the folks at Discovery Channel, and their press agents at Gaiam, I’ve got a copy (that they sent me) of Mythbusters Collection 5.

Mythbusters Collection 5 isn’t a season–rather, this is a block of ten select hour-long episodes of Mythbusters, covering everything from ninjas to cabin fever to driving to lots and lots and lots and LOTS of explosions.  You’ll watch this coterie of action scientists make hypotheses, design experiments, test their experiments and evaluate their results (the entire scientific method in a nutshell!) to determine just how accurate the myths, lore and urban legends we hear about most every day really are.

And this stuff is just fantastic, really.  They walk you through everything, every bit of logic and every rationale for every part of every experiment. You will actually understand, by the time you’re done, exactly what they had in mind with everything, and most of the time it will even make sense.

Perhaps the best part of a Mythbusters episode comes when they’ve done what they set out to do, but still have some time left on their hands.  That’s when they throw science aside for maximum destruction–for instance, when testing a myth about a single stick of dynamite blowing up an SUV, they finished early, and thus decided to fire up a whole raftload of dynamite and, in grandest high-school science geek style, “see what happens”.

Most of the time, these events cause really big explosions or other similar dramatic things to happen, and even sometimes, things you don’t expect.  Nor are things you don’t expect limited to the odd end segments, either.  Sometimes you get bizarre results just from the normal experimentation, and that means that Mythbusters is a show that specializes in the unexpected. Something new and exciting is likely to happen in every episode, and many times, more than once.

The constant string of unexpected outcomes, as we wonder just which myths will be busted and which will be proven, gives us a show that very seldom gets dull, and always brings something new and interesting to its proceedings.  This show is a cult favorite, and having ten episodes in one package is nice.

Though I question why anyone would want to buy this when complete seasons are available, also on DVD.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile, shrugs at a bizarre marketing decision and calls this a more than good enough eight out of ten.  While it’s a bit niche, it does offer some great moments and loads of fun, so even if you’re not a science wonk, you’ll still get lots of laughs and even some eduction out of it.