Howard Rosenberg's column appears Mondays and Fridays. What a wasted opportunity, one that could have helped animals instead of celebrating a self-serving buffoon who uses them to praise himself. In his signature moppy hair, khaki shirt and shorts, Irwin has built a career out of using reptiles and other animals as personal props in front of cameras under the pretense of aiding them. As with NBC's largely stale footage, which opened with Irwin repeatedly taunting a lunging alligator until she bit his hand. That was replayed, along with close-ups of the wound, so that viewers could experience the full peril he bravely faces on behalf of the animals he invites to strike him.
Television dines on facile conflict.
So Animals vs. Humans becomes its gruel, creating a twisted reality that nourishes fear of animals as our natural adversaries and a belief they're ours to exploit. As if humans attacking them weren't the real crisis. And one that most Americans will not see unless mainstream TV's programmers find the backbone to run it. He's Eddie Lama. Lama launches the project charismatically.