I guess the writer's strike is hitting everyone by now - even the nature shows that I thought, until last night, didn't have writers.
There I was - watching the news or The Fabulous Life of Rich People Who Are Totally Disconnected From Reality on VH1 (I get the two confused, because I'm stupid like that), when I see a commercial for an upcoming episode of Dangerous Encounters on The National Geographic Channel (check your local listings). I was a big fan of Steve Irwin back in the day; not because he was educational and interesting, but because I kept on waiting for one of the wild and untamed animals he harassed to turn on him. Yeah, I know it's probably insensitive to say that, but seriously, when you slap death in the face on a daily basis for years, one of the times he's going to get mad and slap back.
Anyway, this Dangerous Encounters show appears to be the latest attempt to recreate the absolute recklessness of Steve Irwin. The host - Brady Barr - picks up where Steve left off. He's all about finding the most dangerous animals on the planet, getting right in their face, and recording it all for the world to see. Perhaps you remember this past summer when Brady was in a cave looking for giant pythons. Well, he found one, and sure enough, the python wasn't too happy to see Brady and the 18 TV crew members that were recording the event. Said python bit Brady then proceeded to do what pythons are known for - squeezing things to death. Brady escaped, but not before getting enough good footage to make the show an hour long.
Back to last night - whoever is in charge of episode ideas for Dangerous Encounters is getting really, really lazy. Instead of coming up with educational and interesting ideas, they're copying cheap movie stunts. On the January 20th episode, Brady, in an effort to get a better understanding of hippos, is going to get in a life-size fake hippo and interact with live hippos. No, you did not just read the plot for Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls. Yes, I know Ace climbs out of a rhino's butt in the movie. Work with me here.
I think next week, they're going to see how wildebeests and lion's attack by trying to recreate the scene from The Lion King when Mustafa dies.
