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Billy The Exterminator Season Two (DVD Review)

The only thing better than Billy the Exterminator Season One is Billy the Exterminator Season Two!  Right?  To be completely honest, Season Two doesn’t have a lot of new things in it, but that is okay.  More Billy the Exterminator is a very good thing.  Season Two was just as entertaining as Season One.

Absolutely nothing in the show leads me to think you have to start with Season One if you don’t want to.  This is a great show to have on while cleaning the house and folding laundry.  It’s great background noise and you can always easily figure out what’s going on.  Every episode is Billy vs. something that doesn’t want to be caught and they are all fun to watch.

Film

If there is a fan club dedicated to Billy Bretherton (aka Billy the Exterminator), I would like to sign up.  Billy teaches us that “I believe in Karma, and if I killed indiscriminately I think it would eventually come back to haunt me.”  That is why he chooses to trap rather than kill whenever possible.  A few times this season a gator is caught which, by law must be killed, and he seems to be pretty bummed about it.  He stresses that the hide and the meat will be used so the gator doesn’t die for nothing.

Season two has some great episode titles like Funeral Home Snake, Nursery Room Raccoon, and Attack of the 15 Foot Snake.  All are worth watching just to see how Billy deals with these extreme infestations and you can root for Billy and the animal at the same time (I do).  Billy’s family is just as present as they were in Season One.

His brother, Ricky starts off the season with what I suspected was a new blonde hairdo.  We get to follow him and his mom to the hairdresser (where he does in fact get his hair colored).  Donnie, (Billy and Ricky’s mom), is still meddling in both of their love lives while trying to control her ailing husband.   Billy’s wife has quit working with Vexcon (Billy’s pest control company) but won’t go away.

This season I decided that Billy can do way better than her and I hope in season three he ends up with a female version of Crocodile Dundee.  They can trap gators, live in a swamp and have crazy little children with mullets and leather jackets.  The detour this season is that Billy and Ricky take a trip a little farther outside their normal service area.  They go on a fox removal call but have time to investigate the oil spill in the area.  They visit an institute that cleans oily animals and take a ride out to see the affected areas first hand.

Billy rescues an animal and then learns that he is supposed to leave it alone.  In typical Billy style, he decides that just won’t do and takes over the production teams boat so that he can take the little guy to get some help.  Billy is a crazy, white trash exterminator but he really does care about the animals he works with and the people he helps.   I can’t wait to see what the critters of Louisiana have in store for Billy in season three.

Video

This is an A&E TV show on DVD and the video quality is exactly what you would expect.  Nothing fancy.  I would love to see Billy the Exterminator in Blu Ray 3D, but I doubt that is going to happen.  Once again this is ull frame (1.33:1) and it’s pretty standard issue.  Colors are decent as are the black levels and the flesh-tones are life-like but detail is lacking as should be expected for a DVD.

Audio 

The Dolby Digital track on the DVD is no better than watching this as it airs on TV.  The show could benefit from good use of wurround sound with all the sounds of hissing gators and bats flying around but it didn’t happen.  Again, I hope for a Blu Ray set one day that will have a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track to provide me with some awesome sound.

Special Features

Season two doesn’t have as many special features as season one did and that is a bummer.  The ones they have on this set aren’t great, but they’re not a total waste of time to watch either.  They are however, very short and I wish they had put more effort into these extras.

• About Billy – More info about the man and what he does.
• Billy’s Tips – Billy’s suggestions on what to do for various insects and animals but I didn’t learn anything new from it.  In one segment he goes into great detail about how to attract ants using sugar water.   I know how attract ants – using food in general – I was waiting for a super secret suggestion that would be better than my can of Raid and I was disappointed.
• Behind the Scenes – An interesting look into what the camera crew deal with to follow all the crazy things Billy does.  Billy points out that the camera crew can’t defend themselves as their hands are busy holding on to the camera.  This seems like a brave crew that trusts Billy to protect them.

Final Thoughts

Billy the Exterminator and his company Vex Con are like a train wreck you can’t look away from.  This is the only time in my life I have ever found white trash to be charming.  Most people will either love Billy or hate him.   If A&E makes an I Heart Billy shirt, I want one!  Like the previous season, the show is also toddler approved.  With all the animal action going on, this is one of the few shows with people (not animated) that my two year old wants to watch.  The green skull and crossbones Vex Con logo has my son enthusiastically asking for the “green pirate show.”  We laugh when Billy sends his allergic brother in to fight wasps, and we cringe as the same brother eats them.  Billy the Exterminator is definitely fun for the whole family.

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