From the start let me state this is my opinion,
I had the unfortunate displeasure of watching an episode of this piss poor attempt at reality/scare/nail biting/ WTF come HUH programing on Nat Geo recently. I am all for educating the ignorant and the general public at large, but when our "finest" selection of reptile ambassadors have about as much class and tact as a red neck strip joint on pay day, I have to voice my concern at the quality of the "education" we supposedly putting forward to the general public? Seriously! Is that the type of "professional" image we want people to see us herpetologists as? I counted the word "sh!t" being uttered by both show hosts used no less than 6 times during the program, at one stage the female host referred to a Brown house they were attempting to capture as a "bloody stupid snake" I mean really? This "documentary" goes out to the world and we have our host's swearing and carrying on like bergies fighting over the last pap sak on a Sunday morning?
Another brilliant piece of intelligence was during the program said female host and "friend" from the uk (who by the way was "in training") were "called" out to capture a brown snake in a house.... said female host called one male one legged friend (who is also apparently an "experienced" herper) to assist her and the in training pom with the call out as said male host had flown to Gauteng to learn how to "milk" a black mamba with Mike Perry.
This is where Mr one leg (long story short.. he was knocked down by a vehicle whilst trying to rescue a snake on a road somewhere) comes into his own, whilst in the house where the snake was spotted, Miss Host and trainee Pom were both wearing protective eye wear as it was suspected the brown snake was a Moz spitter, good for them, sadly Mr One leg was also wearing protective eye wear but it was perched on his head, as he got into the thick of things, it took about 3minutes before the moz spitter made his presence known by managing a brilliant pre-emptive strike to both of Mr one leg's eyes one time! A mad dash for water was made whilst Mr one legged stayed seating on the ground about 1meter from said by now very angry spitter...
At this stage I had wee'd a little and was coughing furiously from laughter! Even my missuses asked why this program wasn't on Comedy Central instead as it was more a circus act than an education show?
Seriously.... Come on! We have such a huge range of experienced and well known herpetologists here in SA and this is what we show to the world? WTF?
Ps: I mustn't forget to mention said male host also appeared sans T shirt showing off his seriously tattooed body to the world during one interview , nice image mate! I also won't mention the Black label quart bottles that made cameo appearances once or twice through the show ....