USA TODAY International Edition
Bill Nye hopes to save the world on new Netflix series
He stands soundly against the skeptics in new Netflix series
Not all heroes wear capes. Bill Nye wears a bowtie.
The TV personality best known for his wacky ’ 90s show
Science Guy is back Friday with a science- education series on Netflix. But this time, the skinny scientist isn’t just sharing facts; he’s trying to rescue humanity from anti- science sentiment. The show’s immodest title? Bill Nye Saves the World.
“Our hope is to present a scientific viewpoint on issues of society,” he says at a time when pseudoscience and globalwarming denial are popular. He dedicates two of the season’s 13 episodes, all due Friday, to those topics. Although “we produced all the shows before the election,” he says, the issues we cover “have come into stark relief” since President Trump took office. Saves the World is essentially a talk show: Nye jokes, conducts experiments in front of a studio audience, moderates panels with experts and deploys field correspondents for remote segments.
But the show isn’t gentle and kid- friendly — you can tell Nye is angry about the state of things “while we’re living in a time of anti- science,” he says. Though the show is “for anybody that has an interest ( in) the issues in society from a science standpoint,” Nye would give the show a PG- 13 rating, partly for his “passion.”
In an episode on alternative medicine, Nye does more than hint that a Whole Foods product for curing stomach pains is a bunch of bull, and he practically name- calls a practitioner of sound therapy. Also on the episode, one of his writers delivers a stand- up bit about how Buddhist décor is inexplicably on display in alternative- medicine offices.
“Stop using Asian wallpaper,” he says. “It’s half nonsense, half Indian. … It’s called Deepak Chopra.”
Nye says this about the show: “You’re not gonna change everyone’s mind, but maybe we can give people a nudge.” And to help push viewers along, he employs fun phrases like “It’s not magic; it’s science!”
He likens many Americans’ ignorance of science to the Aesop’s fable about the fox and the grapes. In the story, the fox complains that the grapes are out of her reach. “Her worldview conflicts with the evidence, so she changes her opinion of the grapes and declares them sour. On our show, we hope to shift that worldview,” he says. “Actually, you can’t reach the grapes because your legs are only this long.”
And no, this time he won’t be putting himself in harm’s way to help get his point across, as he used to do on Science Guy.
“As far as we can control, there will be a lot fewer head injuries,” he says. “So far, there are no plans to have buckets of water to the face.”
Now, Nye has other people to take the water- dumping for him.
Saves the World features special correspondents including model Karlie Kloss, comedians Joanna Hausmann and Nazeem Hussain, and an array of guests including Joel McHale, Martin Starr, Tim Gunn and Steve Aoki.