Science and Hollywood are like oil and paprika. Sometimes you can get them to mix but eating the stuff is gross. All week I've seen sensational commercials for a silly NBC miniseries called 10.5 and last night I watched the first installment. The bad... Bad... BAD acting and disgusting directing are laughable as they are, but the most egregious sin is the science.

Ok, for acting, everyone is overacting, even Bridges, who should know better. The implied drama isn't great enough apparently, uber-enunciation and rediculous line delivery need to be added for effect. The best actor on the show is Luke Duke. Or is it Bo Duke, I can never get them straight. At least he fits his persona.

If you watched it you were probably sitting there being agitated the whole time, even in non-quake scenes, and couldn't figure out why. The director was trying to make every scene seem like an earthquake with quick zoom-ins and zoom-outs of the character's faces and dialogue. I felt like throttling the Jr. High School camera boy and telling him to be still and relax. Thanks, director, for taking risks, but just don't do that again.

Here's some quick notes about the science.

The scene with the train falling into the quake crack is ridiculous. Earthquakes don't open up cracks. If the movement was opening a crack you wouldn't have any friction, and hence no "quaking." Duh.

The largest quake ever was in Chile in 1960 at a 9.5 magnitude. The largest in North America was 9.2 in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1964. More groovy stats can be found at the USGS Kids site. Want to get an idea how big those Richter scale magnitudes really are? Check out the intensity scale comparison. More quake tips can be learned here.