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Parents' Guide to

Destroy Build Destroy

By Will Wade, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

Engineering + explosions = fun reality show for tweens.

Destroy Build Destroy Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.

Community Reviews

age 10+

Based on 8 parent reviews

age 18+

Heck no!

My kids watched this movie and now they are destroying stuff in our house with their DaBaby cars.
age 17+

One of my favorites

Okay, looking back I remember when I was a child having to be forced away from the TV every Wednesday night because this show aired past bed time but the times I did get to watch this show I loved it. As a kid I remember wanting to do things like this because it was fun. Watching people make cool things that were impractical and off the wall was fun and entertaining to watch. I'm sad that this show got canceled to be honest.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (8 ):
Kids say (21 ):

What's not to like about blowing stuff up? And the explosions on this show are seriously big -- which means they're certain to appeal to teen and tween viewers, especially boys. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, even though the point of the show is ostensibly engineering, it's the smallest part. Two-thirds of each episode is about destroying things, and only the building phase requires thinking and creativity. Still, at least the teenage participants aren't handling the explosives (or the power tools, for that matter). They serve more as directors, telling adults what to do and watching the results. Only during the actual contest do the kids really take a hands-on role, though they certainly seem to be having fun through the entire process.

Andrew W.K. and the producers encourage a fair bit of rivalry, and a few of the comments occasionally go a bit too far. A team of skaters, for example, crows that their skills at building skateboard ramps will help them design a superior vehicle and is openly contemptuous of their rivals, a group of self-defined math team geeks whom the skaters deride as "dorks." And in the end, the contest stage seems kind of random -- and the results don't depend all that much on either group's engineering prowess. But at least the explosions are fun to watch.

TV Details

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