'Swamp Brothers': Leaping lizards and slippery snakes make for good TV
Robbie (left) and Stephen Keszey
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America loves the swamp. Maybe it's the humidity. Maybe it's the extended growing season. Maybe it's the long, delicious list of slithering creatures that thrive in the damp recesses of our worst nightmares. But whatever the reason, television is willing to satisfy our appetite with another series that's set knee-deep in the middle of creepy crawlies.
With that said, "Swamp Brothers" premieres Friday, May 13, on Discovery Channel. It follows Robbie and Stephen Keszey, brothers who run the family business, Glades Herp Farm, deep in the sticky part of Florida. For the uninitiated, "Herp" is a term referring to reptiles and amphibians, not an unfortunate viral condition that leaves you with a lot of explaining to do.
The business is part animal rescue, part breeding and part preservation. From rattlesnakes to alligators, bobcats and black bears -- it's all in a day's work as they try to protect and preserve animals most of us would kill with a shovel. But there's more to the series than just weird animals. Not surprisingly, the brothers are kinda weird, too.
Robbie is the animal expert, while Stephen is a city slicker who's learning the ropes from his brother to grow the business and keep family bonds tight -- because nothing says family like trying to find a mate for a gila monster. Robbie's wife and kids are even in on the act.
With Stephen being such a fish out of water (it wasn't that long ago he was a bartender in New York), it makes for some entertaining moments: Who doesn't love watching a city slicker who's fearful of being bitten, poisoned and stung almost get bitten, poisoned and stung? Seriously, that's good TV.
But lest you think Stephen is the only entertaining one, we should let you in on a little secret: Robbie, who is covered from head to toe in tattoos, used to play bass in a rock band and was once Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille's personal assistant. That should prepare anyone for a life with dangerous animals. Between those two and the rest of the Herp crew, there's plenty of weirdness to go around. We can only speculate on a cameo by the Bronx Zoo cobra.
Now, if they can only set up an impromptu Poison concert at the farm, it might just deepen our love of everything swamp. Yep, somewhere Francis Marion is smiling.
With that said, "Swamp Brothers" premieres Friday, May 13, on Discovery Channel. It follows Robbie and Stephen Keszey, brothers who run the family business, Glades Herp Farm, deep in the sticky part of Florida. For the uninitiated, "Herp" is a term referring to reptiles and amphibians, not an unfortunate viral condition that leaves you with a lot of explaining to do.
The business is part animal rescue, part breeding and part preservation. From rattlesnakes to alligators, bobcats and black bears -- it's all in a day's work as they try to protect and preserve animals most of us would kill with a shovel. But there's more to the series than just weird animals. Not surprisingly, the brothers are kinda weird, too.
Robbie is the animal expert, while Stephen is a city slicker who's learning the ropes from his brother to grow the business and keep family bonds tight -- because nothing says family like trying to find a mate for a gila monster. Robbie's wife and kids are even in on the act.
With Stephen being such a fish out of water (it wasn't that long ago he was a bartender in New York), it makes for some entertaining moments: Who doesn't love watching a city slicker who's fearful of being bitten, poisoned and stung almost get bitten, poisoned and stung? Seriously, that's good TV.
But lest you think Stephen is the only entertaining one, we should let you in on a little secret: Robbie, who is covered from head to toe in tattoos, used to play bass in a rock band and was once Poison guitarist C.C. DeVille's personal assistant. That should prepare anyone for a life with dangerous animals. Between those two and the rest of the Herp crew, there's plenty of weirdness to go around. We can only speculate on a cameo by the Bronx Zoo cobra.
Now, if they can only set up an impromptu Poison concert at the farm, it might just deepen our love of everything swamp. Yep, somewhere Francis Marion is smiling.
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