Grant Imahara died today.
I won’t pretend to know everything he’d done or been a part of as an engineer, presenter, builder etc. But I do know that him and the rest of the Mythbusters crew have been a steady and comforting hand during a long period of recovery in my life. As someone with anxiety I tend to watch reruns on TV. Reruns offer a certainty, a backdrop of calm in an often unforgiving brain chemistry.
Part of my repeats repertoire was Mythbusters.
One of the reasons for that was the absolute loveliness that someone like Grant was able to portray. Forgetting his undoubted brilliance when it came to being an engineer, it was Grant’s connection to the people that he worked with (as well as connection to his IRL loved ones through Instagram) and the warmness that he was able to transmit through the screen that always left me feeling calmer.
There also seemed to be a side of Grant that just ‘went with it’ and he was a fantastic comedic sidekick to Tory’s inevitable batshit mental stupidity. The chemistry between the two and Kari seemed to be genuine and for someone with anxiety, certainty of anything is actually very comforting. Those relationships and that show will always be special to me and it will always hold a particularly comforting place in my reruns back catalogue.
RIP Grant, thanks so much for your (unknown) support throughout the years.