I checked out “Man vs. Cartoon” on Saturday night, and while it’s not the coolest show ever, it’s not half bad.

The setup had me drooling: A team of engineers sets out to recreate some of Wile E. Coyote’s most spectacular failures in his neverending effort to catch the Road Runner. Among them: rocket-powered roller skates, a human pendulum and anvils dropping from the sky. Seeing how much I love it when things go kablooey and people go splat, the series sounded tailor-made for my inner 8-year-old.

On Saturday’s show, a crew from a New Mexico munitions testing company constructed a giant pendulum that suspended a stuntman, who swooped down to spear a moving Road Runner. They also tried dropping a big ol’ boulder off a huge cliff in an effort to splatter the aforementioned Road Runner. (These guys hate — or maybe are hungry for — Road Runners almost as much as Wile E.)

The human pendulum spear. (TruTV photo)

It’s basically a Wile E. Coyote version of Discovery’s “Mythbusters.” And that’s where the problem lies. The actual tests and stunts on “Man vs. Cartoon” are pretty cool. The problem is the buildup. The team is made up of engineers and scientists, who aren’t the most telegenic folks around. Especially when compared to the “Mythbusters” crew, which I couldn’t help doing. There’s some nice banter among the guys, but no one has the screen presence of Adam or Jamie on “Mythbusters.” There’s also a little too much onscreen practical geometry, applied physics and chalkboard equations for my taste. (Math scares me, that’s why I got into journalism.)

In the end, however, the “Man vs. Cartoon” crew are victims of their own genius. The Coyote cartoons were so funny because he always failed, and did so in such spectacular fashion. But these guys are too good — they actually succeed. Wile E. Coyote may have had an IQ of 207 (super genius), but it turns out what he really needed was a engineering degree from New Mexico Tech. And while it’s neat to see a stuntman swinging from a 21-foot drop spear a Road Runner, it’s also a little anticlimactic. Coldly precise mathematical formulas aren’t exactly dramatic.

All in all, I found it interesting but not compelling. I’ll try to check out a few more episodes, and hopefully it’ll get a little more exciting. (And explosive — is it too much to ask for a few billowing explosions?) Still, the concept is so brilliant that it’s worth checking out.

“Man vs. Cartoon” airs at 10 p.m. Saturdays on TruTV (that’s the new incarnation of CourtTV).