Much Like the Macaque’s Engorged Butt, “Adventure Beast” Deserves to Be Seen and Appreciated
Most animal shows are gorgeous “how is that real?” screensavers narrated by living legends and I love them. When so many forces are out there trying to darken our world, I need reminders of its beauty.
But it’s often the social media equivalent of animal life. The filtered, cherry-picked best and most dramatic/cute moments found within the ever-memeable animal kingdom.
Netflix’s Adventure Beast is an entirely different nature show dedicated to exploring the wonders AND horrors of nature. In this wildlife comedy based on the exploits of Australian naturalist Bradley Trevor Grieve (BTG), there’s far more screen time devoted to fecal parasites and engorged teats. The show’s M.O. is simple: the messy details are the best part. Across 12 episodes littered with urine, evil cousins and necrophilia gang rape, it’s hard to argue. Bless BTG and co. for embracing the weird and devoting plotlines to pangolin sex tapes.
Each episode follows BTG, the smart-stupid-nearly-a-superhero leader with a fully functioning ecosystem in his beard, and his team’s expeditions across extremely dangerous corners of the world. BTG’s joined by the always panicked Dietrich (Josh Zuckerman), who has somehow managed to out-survive all of BTG’s previous field assistants, and BTG’s fun-lovin’ provocateur niece Bonnie (Danice Cabanela).
This quirky trio travels the world in animal costumes (ahem, “zoological proximity disguises”) and find twisted life lessons at the end of every engorged 15–20 minute episode. I greatly appreciate a show that argues on the sloth’s side: laziness CAN be smart. And sometimes, “sheer panic is the best escape plan.” I knew it!
Along the way, BTG routinely suffers gruesome life-threatening injuries balanced by frank discussions of sex, genitalia and poop (read: the good stuff). It’s a sex-positive show that points out plainly: our planet is a queer one.
Much like the macaque’s engorged ass, this show deserves to be seen and appreciated. Sure, there’s enough content out there to make us shoot poisonous blood from our eyes like a short-horned lizard, but the strange pleasures of Adventure Beast are worth seeking.
