Bill Nye has always been like a father explaining science. Especially in his demeanor: his uncompromising goofiness, patient intelligence, and snazzy bow-ties made him just one missed little-league game away from being my dad. With his new Netflix show "Bill Nye Saves the World," it’s clear that Nye is in a new phase of his dad-status: a mid-life crisis.
As ‘90s entertainment nostalgia is getting choked to death (looking at you "Full House" and "Power Rangers"), it was only a matter of time before Bill Nye received due treatment. Nye has spent the in between time of "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (his star-defining role) and his Netflix show by lending his personality to shows like Battlebots and his brain to scientific research including climate change. Spoiler: He has a lot of feelings about climate change.
The format of Nye’s new show is him in a giant glass cube where he conducts scientific experiments, hosts celebrity guests like Steve Aoki, and interviews panelists on topics that vary from episode to episode, all in front of a live-studio audience. This late night talk show format allows Nye to be spontaneous and off-script and that is where the audience is allowed to see how eccentric this man is. He does voices, he loves fist-bumps, and he’s always going for the quick joke.
The Science Guy made Nye like a male version of Ms. Frizzle from "Magic School Bus," but his '90s show was filmed in a format that celebrated and utilized Nye’s personality. Quick-cuts, fun demonstrations, and goofy visuals all grounded the show to Nye’s personality. With "Bill Nye Saves the World," the beloved scientist’s personality is trapped in a dialogue-heavy, monotonous setting. Bill Nye is too great to be kept in a studio, yet that is precisely what happens. When the show strays to the field, the guides become young, attractive correspondents who seem more in love with Nye than what they’re doing. Who can blame them, though?
Besides the growing pains of the show’s structure, its spirit is a more sinister animal. To be frank, "Bill Nye Saves the World" is trashy liberal propaganda. It doesn’t teach the concepts of science, it’s a platform for an entertainment and science icon to stand on his soap box and flail his position around for 30 minutes at a time. Nye, 61 years-old, seems more interested in screeching his research at you than actual scientific discovery.
Halfway through the 12-episode season I watched an old episode of "Bill Nye the Science Guy." Was I being a curmudgeon, blinded by nostalgia, just being critical of Nye’s new show because it wasn’t “like the old stuff I like?” Watching an old episode about invertebrates (season four, episode 15) what stuck out to me was Nye’s attitude change between the two shows. In ...Science Guy he’s excited, but in ...Saves the World he’s hysterical. Though he is the guide in Bill Nye the Science Guy he is not the star. Science, learning, and fun is. Unfortunately, the creators of his new show put everything secondary to his celebrity status.
The problem with Nye’s new show being a platform to preach instead of teach raises ethical concerns for the causes that Nye himself holds dear. Another scientist that shares a position of popularity with Nye is Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson has been cited many times as specifying that he’s an agnostic over an atheist. Tyson recognizes that taking a position on such a polarizing issue like religion will drive away people that may otherwise listen to him. In his own words, he’s a scientist and teacher first.
Nye’s new show depicts him as an activist before he’s a teacher or scientist, and when you militarize science with a thing like emotions it is no longer pure science. Yes, what Nye is posting is widely-accepted scientific fact. But the man is not trying to educate to those who don’t recognize those facts. He scolds, just like a disappointed dad.
When I look at Bill Nye Saves the World I am disappointed that a man with the position he has is getting in his own way. And not just that, but he has failed to make a fun show, a counter to the very thing he says in his pitched-up voice in every episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy: “Science Rules.” Science can’t rule when it’s being treated as a weapon by its host. Nye is a very passionate and dedicated citizen that is committed to the ways of logic, but he’s using the very illogical tool of emotion to make his point right now.
"Bill Nye Saves the World" is 6 hours of being preached to by Bill Nye, but when we’ve put him on a pedestal and worshiped him as we have, should that come as any shock?
