The Jeff Corwin Experience: Season Two

TV host Jeff Corwin is a big bundle of boyish enthusiasm, skipping through rainforests and desert landscapes in search of rare and unusual animals. It's like having Joey and Ross from "Friends" fused into a single character, and then set out on safari with a film crew in tow: Corwin is physical and rambunctious, but also knowledgeable and able to rattle off scientific facts about poisonous critters that he's just dug out of the underbrush -- obviously working from memory, since the viper or dart frog or whatever isn't waiting around for him to read anything off of a cue card.

The show has an appealing improvisational air about it, with has its plusses and minuses. On the plus side, the show is exciting and quickly draws you in; Corwin has a cheerful, magnetic presence and his enthusiasm for nature comes through clearly. He also consistently works in eco-friendly messages and talks about having respect for nature, about leaving wild animals alone (especially dangerous ones) and about the need to protect habitat, etc. On the down side, you get a nagging feeling that there's a lot of information that is being left out, and that the mini-lectures Corwin delivers while, say, holding the deadliest viper in Central America, might not be as thorough as it might otherwise be. Corwin is sensitive to how much each animal is willing to put up with, and once he drops the animal back into the wild, the encounter (and the lecture) is over with. Also, his hands-on approach seems pretty invasive -- even though he often is taking part in scientific studies (tagging animals, etc.) and takes great pains to explain that what he is doing has been officially sanctioned, the overall effect may be to encourage audience members to mess about with wild animals themselves, which may have unfortunate consequences.

On balance, though, the show is informative and fun: one of the most amusing aspects is how totally into snakes Corwin is. So, if you like to see rare and deadly and beautiful serpents, this is definitely the show for you! There are plenty of mammals and birds, too, but Corwin does love the creepy crawlies. Overall this is a fun show, definitely worth checking out. (Joe Sixpack, ReadThatAgain kid's reviews)

Season 2 includes 13 episodes of nature education and adventures on 3 DVDs. The DVDs are packaged in a shiny paperboard foldable slipcase that can be inserted into a slim paperboard box.

Disc 1:
1. Florida: Exploring Pascua de Florida
2. Guyana: Land of the Giants
3. California: The Wild One
4. Costa Rica: The Arribiatta
5. The Amazon: Goin' Bananas

Disc 2:
6. Australia: Out of Balance Down Under
7. Tasmania: Sympathy for the Devil
8. Zanzibar: Dr. Corwin I Presume
9. Tanzania: Bodies in Motion

Disc 3:
10. India: Between the Tiger and the Lion
11. Nepal: Journey to Shangri-La
12. Morocco: A Time Machine of Sand
13. Spain: Americano Loco

This is an awesome video series (both season 1 and 2). Jeff Corwin is hilarious and yet shares so much knowledge. He is my 4 year old son's hero and I enjoy watching with him as well.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 7 reviews  4.9 out of 5 stars