‘Mosquito’ bite scary
The Bible asks, “Death, Where Is Thy Sting?” Now we know.
The documentary “Mosquito” (9 p.m., Discovery, TV-PG) just might give you nightmares. Narrated by Jeremy Renner, it ticks off gruesome statistics about the little stingers and their role in epidemics that have killed millions and infected billions. Some contend that half the people who have ever lived have died from a mosquito-borne illness.
Diseases including zika, malaria, West Nile virus, yellow fever, chikungunya and dengue have been around killing people for many years. In the 21st century, warmer temperatures and ubiquitous air travel have enabled these Africa-based diseases to move to Europe and North America, where hundreds of millions of people have little or no immunities to tropical viruses.
Made with the cooperation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and featuring interviews with Bill Gates, “Mosquito” is a curiously beautiful film, filled with gorgeous close-ups of blood-sucking parasites as well as their breeding grounds.
Graphics inform us of the unique
properties that make mosquitos ideal for transmitting viruses. In the end, it all comes down to saliva. In addition to literally “sawing” their way into your skin and drinking your blood, mosquitos use their own spit as an anti-coagulant, and that’s what spreads disease, one bite at a time.
Size-wise, it’s difficult to think of anything less significant than mosquito spit. But the potential for mosquitos spreading pandemics has gotten the world health community’s attention. Bill Gates is a tad rattled by the prospect. Perhaps that’s a concern we all should share.
› The 2010 3-D version of “Yogi Bear” (8 p.m., Nickelodeon) was a critically savaged modest hit that did not become a franchise. Like the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movies, it was based on a cartoon popular decades before the birth of its audience.
“Yogi” also celebrated a character type all but written out of modern pop culture. The late-sleeping picnic basket thief hearkened back to crafty, shiftless characters and sidekicks from the early and mid-20th century.
Characters like Jughead from the “Archie” comics, Sluggo in the “Nancy” strip, most of the “Little Rascals” and Maynard G. Krebs on “Dobie Gillis” seemed to survive and thrive without discernible income or family to support them.
Perhaps Kramer on “Seinfeld” was the last great scrounge artist of his kind. He was funny and likable despite (and perhaps because of) his lack of social standing, material wherewithal and an allergy to gainful employment.
In the gentrified 21st century, even our fictions and fantasies have evicted the lovably unambitious. There’s little room for artful survivors like Yogi Bear.