72 Dangerous Animals: Latin America

Documentary noun 1. a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report. synonyms: factual program, factual film

This show should not be in the documentary category because it is more like a reality TV show for people who would get bored watching an actual documentary. It gives shallow inconsistent information about a bunch of animals and then proceeds to subjectively rank them in a game-show fashion. The music is melodramatic even in the most unrelated scenes, the narrator sounds like he's hosting Fear Factor, and the information given about the animals are completely arbitrary. The information varies from their venom etc, to their shamanic purposes and how shamans curse those who hunt the animal without holy permission etc. The ranking criteria is non-existent; the show claims to 'rank' the most dangerous animals, but then proceeds to rank non-deadly ants, venomous frogs, and stingrays in the same criteria, which is never clarified and is totally absurd. I still do not understand their rankings, is it pain, lethality, chance of encounter? Can anyone imagine BBC Planet Earth ranking biomes or species, it's just stupid. On top of this, the experts who are interviewed are not relevant in their fields, and gives the impression that the documentary makers just interviewed whoever they could get a hold of. This is as documentary-like as a History channel special about Aliens and Thanksgiving. If you're looking to get informed about wildlife, toxins, biology, or anything factual, then steer clear of this show. However, if you just want to sit down with your friends, get drunk, and mindlessly watch a weird gameshow-reality TV-documentary mashup, for giggles, then this show will not disappoint you.

This show wants to scare and desensitize people to animal abuse by showing edge cases of animal attacks. It's really sad that producers need to make money that way.

I've learned a lot about wildlife in other areas of the world. I don't always agree with their rankings, but the rankings aren't the point. The point is just seeing the different wildlife in the area and getting a snippet of that specific animal or insect in under an hour (seems most episodes are in the upper 40 minute range).

Looking at other reviews on this I'd have to say that maybe animal activists shouldn't watch this type of program, or basically any nature documentary on Discovery, Animal Planet, etc., as none of them are really designed to your agenda. I applaud the program for simply telling why people should stay away from dangerous animals. But I would like to point out that there have been several examples in the series where they play advocate to animal rights causes and discuss abuse or endangered aspects of animals. I'd also point out that no one on the series advocates harming any of the animals, even those who have been attacked.

Really didn't intend on watching 12 episodes of this, but I did. It is quite interesting as, for most of us, we see killers not in our everyday world. I say most because there ia couple that will be fairly close by to those not living in Latin America. Most, however, are indigenous to areas south of the equator..

The program is not what I'd call a documentary series. It is done in a style that is what I call educational entertainment, possibly with a hope that science classes will use it as well. It is obviously edited for cable TV and has recaps which actually serve to underscore the top 10 killers. By the time one goes through the series this will mean you might just remember these killers due to the recaps and the final episode's review of the worst of the worst.

If you are intrigued by some of the darker critters lurking on our earth this series will give you insights to several different continents most deadly animals. It will do so using knowledgeable talking heads and sometimes introducing us to surviving victims. The overall presentation is done with a degree of entertainment using it's methods of introduction and danger level countdowns per episode wrapping all episodes up in a final countdown. I found it quite worth the time needed to watch. I think if you're curious about the topic you will too.

Anyone is looking to actually learn ANYTHING about animals should pass on this series. The writing is melodramatic and even the most harmless and offensive of animals are described with adjectives that are better suited to horror movies than documentaries. Oh yes...beware of the viscous ....two toed sloth? Er ya...I'm really concerned about being attacked by a sloth... Get the Frack out of here. The writers of this derives should be ashamed of themselves.