Bill Nye Saves the World

Review of Bill Nye Saves the World- Netflix Educational Series

15:08 15 December 2017

2017 has been an incredibly exciting year for all the 90s children as Bill Nye took to the screen again after a hiatus of almost a decade. The Emmy winning star of the immensely acclaimed 90s show Bill Nye, The Science Guy is often held majorly responsible for not only introducing children to science, but also for arousing their interest and love for science. His impact on the children was so huge that a generation of scientists have credited Nye as the reason they got into science. This year Bill Nye took to the screen again in the Netflix educational series, Bill Nye Saves The World.

 

Bill Nye Saves the World premiered on April 21st 2017 with its first episode on climate change titled "Earth Is a Hot Mess", which has already been nominated for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards. This series has talked about several crucial matters that is affecting the planet such as the problem of over population and climate change along with several other interesting topics which include space exploration, theories on life on other planets, extrasensory perception, artificial intelligence, genetically modified organisms etc. as well as interesting medical and social topics such as vaccination, alternative medicine, designer babies, games, sex and even diets. The first season of this Netflix series consisted of 13 episodes and recently it was confirmed by Netflix that the show has been renewed for season two.

 

As the iconic Bill Nye, with his trademark bow tie took to the screen again, mixed reviews have been pouring in regarding the show. Nye has a crucial role to play in America’s education in the 90s owing to the simplicity and ease with he introduced scientific concepts. But his charm lay in the awkwardness and nerdiness that he exuded which was cute, relatable and fun! But with the internet, the value of this awkwardness and what is known as dad jokes, has somewhat dwindled. Over the years as nerdiness has become much cooler than it was in the 90s, somewhere his brand of awkwardness is not as relatable to the cool video game playing, anime watching nerds who are not the bullied, shy minority hiding in the library any more. Moreover, the format of the show doesn’t really go down well with the people who have seen Nye as more of a dad figure, talking to his audience, one to one. It cannot be denied that America’s favorite scientist does much better when he is talking to the camera. But this new format of the show where he has guests over, to talk does not go that well since he has never been seen as a talk show host.

 

Despite all the negative comments, Bill Nye is highly informative and is actually raising much needed awareness on issues that need to be discussed with immediate concern. As always, he has also been facing criticisms from people in the scientific field who claim that the popular American figure is not a real scientist but undeniably he has the necessary degrees, skill and knowledge which is enough to prove him a scientist and a very good one too! He has also faced quite a lot criticism from the anti-science squad who believe that climate change is a hoax or vaccination causes autism etc. but quite honestly, displeasure of this group is more of a success for him. He is largely responsible for a considerable number of American kids applying to college in science majors and no one can take that away!