This is a great little new show.  You may have seen an ad for it in an actual theater – which is where Adam and I first heard about it, and marks maybe the first time ever that I wasn’t pissed to be watching an ad in a theater.  It is a good show, but there are some problems, it can get a little repetitive and neither Adam or I like the opening.  

Eugene Cussons, the “host” I guess is what you’d call him, is charming, without being overly nice and sweet and “perform-y” for the camera, and sometimes you can see that other than saving chimps for a living he might kind of be a dick…which oddly, makes me like him more, if only because he seems more real.  He’s got a great foreign accent (South African? I’m not sure) but that also makes me like him more…I’m a sucker for a British-like accents.  The real stars of course are the chimps which are insanely cute and human-like, especially the young ones, which tend to be less scarred and traumatized and more interested in just hanging out with Eugene and being adorable and climbing trees. 

The show consists of three primary elements – Eugene finding and rescuing chimps that are being mistreated, or that have been stolen, or are scheduled for termination (etc.); dealing with the frustrating details of the respective governments and travel and the myriad of other obstacles that get put in his way; and Chimp Eden itself, which is primarily a beautiful fenced in reserve where he can rehabilitate the chimps.  My favorite bits are of course at Chimp Eden, if only because it seems less sad and more sweet and optimistic than seeing how badly many of these animals are treated, however the show can turn on a dime.  Last week as Jao, a big “grandfather chimp” in “The Kindergarden” (he’s in with the young chimps because he is too aggressive to be in with the adults) all of a sudden tried to yank off Eugene’s boot – pulling him out of a tree – and almost taking his foot off.  They constantly remind you on the show that the chimps are ten times stronger than a human, but man is it easy to forget.  Eugene kept his foot (and his boot) in the end, but it was really intense.   

Escape To Chimp Eden is on Friday’s at 9pm on Animal Planet, although you can catch repeats all the time as well. 

You can learn more about the show here and can also check out a clip on youtube here, it’s not the greatest clip, not the one I would choose, but the best one I could find today.