Bill! Bill! Bill!

It’s a tall order famous TV scientist, Bill Nye, is placing upon himself but the 61 year old hasn’t lost his touch when simplifying the most complex ideas in the science world.  His new show, Bill Nye Saves the World came out on Netflix for all to see and it was clear from the start, Bill was on a mission.  An injustice was being done to the science industry and Bill Nye decided to bring awareness to this issue the only way he knows how.  A cool and hip new TV show!!  Nostalgia filled the air as I began the first of thirteen episodes and the show starts with Nye talking to the camera saying, “I know, I know.  A lot has changed.  But one thing hasn’t – the process of science.  Are you with me?  Are you excited?”  UM YES!

The show proves two things: Nye clearly isn’t afraid of facing a divided audience and we saw that when he publicly debated creationist, Ken Ham, in 2014  And secondly, that you can still have a career after being a contestant on Dancing with the Stars.

The show has tanked in ratings since it’s release with critics saying the show lacked in actual science, it carried a liberal agenda and he lost his entire audience with an anything-goes sex song.  The new show is aimed at primarily an adult audience who have lost the ability to critically think and have fallen victim to becoming complacent.  Nye is extremely unapologetic and does not hold back when talking about taboo topics such as climate change, pseudoscience, GMO’s, and even sex/gender roles in the United States.  The overarching theme Nye preaches is that what he preaches isn’t based off belief or faith, it’s fact which has been proven time and time again by the scientific process. The show is filled with a lot of high’s and quite a few lows which I think critics zeroed on thus giving the show terrible ratings.  But here are a few of the good and the bad.

The Good:

1.Nye can articulate science in way that many people of failed.  Neil Degrasse Tyson used his calming voice to narrate Cosmo’s but sometimes the astrophysicist said things that went completely over the head of his audience.  Nye is adept to scripts which are meant to simply and help demonstrate and he does good job of continuing this and transforms into best grade school science teacher to most entertaining college professor (with Karlie Kloss  being the coolest TA ever).  The show indulges into some very deep topics which have been polarizing the country over the past couple of years.  Nye has never shied away from a fight and I applaud his boldness when talking about these topics.  Simply put, he’s great but the themes of each episode drew me in more than the celebrity cameos and skits.

2.More good- the panel was a personal bright spot of the show and even though Bill’s interviewing skills were far from great, he hit a lot of the points that I was wanting to hear.  In fact, I almost wish the show could evolve into a form of Bill Maher’s HBO show and just be entirely panelists debating.  Like Maher, Nye clearly has a side to which he agrees with and bringing people who disagree with him to debate their sides of the spectrum would be an extremely entertaining show.

3.Bill Nye- 1 and Alternative Medicine- 0.  The show hit it’s peak when Nye decide to do an entire episode on alternative medicine.  One of his correspondents was sent to a “sound therapist” who then had to sit straight-faced while a man screamed into her stomach.  The therapist claims the treatment has sent certain types of cancer into relapse which just leaves everyone in bewilderment and confusion.  But Nye refuses to stop here and brings on comedian Prashanth Venkataramanujam (yea I know) to rant about white people using the Asian culture to help sell their alternative bull shit.  You couldn’t help shout “PREACH!” at your TV because it was all way too true.  Lastly, the episode concludes with an experiment in which Nye perfectly illustrates the ineffectiveness of an alternative heartburn treatment.  The exposure of this industry was a beautiful thing to watch and I want more.

The Bad:

1. I’m not sure who’s idea it was to have a studio audience as a part of this show but it did not benefit anybody and only added to the “cheesiness” of the show.  But forced applause’s and fake laughter only come across as flaws which does not help when you’re trying to point out the flaws in other people’s arguments.

2. The condescending attitude of Nye comes off as a turn off especially if he’s trying to reach out to those who are skeptics of the issues he is covering.  If Nye believes he’s preaching to a choir where everyone believes what he’s saying then who’s mind is he changing?  When trying to reach out to an opposition, I don’t see the benefits in trashing their beliefs because you’ve already offended them and lost them as an audience.  Although, I lost it when he completely threw out the Noah’s Arc when demonstrating Earth’s history.  I could hear the gasps from every Christian household when that happened.

3. Not a comedy- the show hired comedians as writers hoping to bring some laughs and humor to the show but the sketches quickly turned cringe-worthy and quite frankly devalued the points Nye was trying to make.  Bill is a funny man with a huge personality who needs no script which you would think writers would love because that’s less work for them.  But they did the opposite and tried really hard.

Overall, the show has plenty to offer and brings up a lot of good points.  I think bad ratings are to be expected especially with the show consisting of many controversial topics.  Nye’s unapologetic tone may offend people because it can easily come off as an attack on someone’s profession or belief but I don’t mind that he’s ruffling some feathers, in fact, I appreciate it.  He wants to preach skepticism, he wants everyone to question things they learn, and he wants conversations like the ones held at his panels to be had.  Give it a shot and even if you hate the content, you can’t argue with his extremely aesthetically pleasing suits and signature bow ties.