From a comedy club overrun with wild turkeys to a rattlesnake in a tattoo parlor, the situations encountered in A&E's half-hour series come across as a mix of Crocodile Hunter and Dirty Jobs with a lagniappe of Louisiana local color. Goateed Billy Bretherton heads up Vexcon, a Shreveport-based, family-run animal-control business with a rock-and-roll attitude (cool black and metal-studded uniforms, silver chains, etc.). Billy is a pretty likable type (with a hairstyle right out of the Japanese-animated Yu-Gi-Oh!), and despite the show's title he mainly practices humane capture and release of critters instead of killing them—although rodents and insects don't fare as well as raccoons and gators. Information about vermin eco-biology, disease vectors, and animal behavior are nicely explained by Billy, whose discourse is blended with just enough contrived dynastic drama and dysfunction (including an ex-wife/potential gold-digger sniffing around the Vexcon empire's margins) to lend the whole shebang a patina of voyeur TV. Surprisingly, there's also a commendable “green” component to this gumbo, as Billy describes and deploys the safest and most naturally derived toxins in his workplace adventures. Compiling all 13 episodes from the 2009 debut season, DVD extras include assorted behind-the-scenes featurettes. Recommended. [Note: Billy the Exterminator: Season Two is also newly available.] (C. Cassady)
Billy the Exterminator: Season One
A&E, 2 discs, 286 min., not rated, DVD: $19.95 Volume 26, Issue 2
Billy the Exterminator: Season One
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