Back when Buddha and I were kids, networks would occasionally have national tests for fun.
There were IQ tests, knowledge of this, that and everything tests, brain twisters and you name it.
Not only were they great fun, but lying about how well you did the next day was a brain challenge in and of itself.
Now with nearly a thousand choices of what to watch on TV, not to mention the constant inundation from the Internet, including the always brain-enhancing notifications from people who want you to know where they are having coffee, that it’s raining or the anniversary of the death of their cat, it is any wonder that our brains work at all.
Now, along comes “Brain Games” to save us.
The new Nat Geo show harkens back to the days of olde — before stupid was the new smart (or maybe the other way around).
Beginning with a one-hour premiere tonight (after this, it cuts back to 30 minutes), this show challenges us and makes us realize that what we see isn’t always what we get. Or, more precisely, what we see is often only a part of what’s actually there.
You’ll be asked, for example, to watch footballs flying and answer how many have flown across the screen in a short period of time. You’ll be shocked by the answer.
Then you’ll watch a simple play on the field and be asked what you saw. You will miss the best part — I promise.
In place of the usual talking heads and clueless MCs, Jason Silva, a self-proclaimed “wonder junkie” and all-around smart guy, hosts with Apollo Robbins, a guy whom Forbes dubbed, “an artful manipulator of awareness” — in other words, a great Three-card Monte scammer who has more astounding sleight-of-hand tricks up his sleeve (literally).
These guys are joined by doctors, brain specialists and people so smart you can’t help but be sucked in if for no other reason than to try to beat them at their own game.
You may think you know why, for example, time flies when you’re having fun and slows to a crawl when you’re in a bad period of your life. But believe me, you don’t. Not until you hear the real reason.
The phrase “You can’t beat your brain for entertainment” was around before the Brit band Stretch used itfor the title of an album in 1976.
No matter, it was true then and it’s true now.
“Brain Games” is about focus, fear, persuasion, decision-making and all the other things that three pounds of gray matter on top of your neck can do.
I had the best time, and felt like I did when I was a kid and took those national tests.
I beat them every time.