Common Sense Media Review
By Emily Ashby
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Science-based contests will get tweens' gears turning.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 9+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
What's the Story?
In CATCH IT KEEP IT, contestants get 48 hours to overcome the scientific and engineering challenges that stand between them and a prize. In each episode, a three-person team must devise a way to protect a specific item -- a guitar, an aquarium, or a year's supply of beer, for instance -- from the destructive tactics of the show's resident engineer, Mike Senese, who simultaneously builds his own invention for meeting the same challenge. If the team is successful, they win a prize associated with the episode's theme.
Is It Any Good?
This no-frills, science-based series is an intriguing choice for older tweens and teens who enjoy watching the problem-solving process in action. The challenges are designed to get viewers' gears turning along with the contestants', and families can have fun devising their own solutions to the tasks (which they're invited to submit via the show's Web site).
And aside from some occasional strong language as a result of the participants' stressful working conditions, the content is mostly worry free, so families of tweens and teens can tune in without concern.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about science and its applications. How do science and technology improve our daily existence? What aspects of science interest you? What problems would like to solve? How would you go about it?
What parts of the show are based in pure science, and which do you think might have been added to make for more exciting TV? Would you have been as interested in watching if there weren't any explosions, etc?
How much of what you see on TV is actually advertising? How do TV shows and movies include product placement in their content? Does the Internet increase this advertising overload?
TV Details
- Premiere date : July 17, 2009
- Cast : Mike Senese , Zach Selwyn
- Network : SCIENCE
- Genre : Educational
- TV rating :
- Last updated : December 8, 2025
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