The folks out at A&E sent over a copy of Billy the Exterminator: Season One, and I was looking forward to it from the moment they said it shipped. I’m not a huge fan of television, you know–mainly I watch movies, which should surprise no one here, though I do watch some television just to keep up with the industry–but this time was different. This was one of the shows I watched regularly, and now, I get to write it up for you.

Billy the Exterminator: Season One is pretty much exactly what it says it is on the box. We follow Billy–tattooed, pierced, thoroughly goth owner and operator of Louisiana’s own VexCon exterminators. It’s a family operation, with Billy’s dad, wife, mother and brother all joining in to serve various functions in the termination of pests and vermin all across Louisiana. And there are a LOT of pests and vermin roaming Louisiana: wasps, raccoons, mice, roaches, Black Widow spiders and plenty more besides. You’ll not only get to see the hunt for the vermin, but also what’s going on at VexCon, and there’ll be plenty of family drama too.

Billy the Exterminator isn’t just about the drama, whether it be animal drama or family drama, but also about plenty of good old fashioned laughs and a little excitement. Watching Billy go chasing raccoons or wasps or anything else has a lot of different elements–there are chases involved, and the chases can be suspenseful or slapstick by lengths.

Oh, and Billy’s leather “bee suit” is a sight to see. Truly.

It’s actually really impressive, and you’ll see early on why I followed this show. Between the vermin and the internal stuff, there’s a whole lot of fun going on at VexCon. Billy, for his part, serves well as both animal expert and personality sufficient to fuel a show by himself–adding his family onto things is only a step up from there. You’ll learn so much about mouse behavior and other things (did you know mice and rats have virtually no bladder control?) that you’ll be just amazed all the time. Sure, some will find it repetitive, following an exterminator all over the place on various calls, but there’s still plenty of fun here for most anybody.

The Screenhead Ten Scale can’t help but give Billy the Exterminator Season One a terrific eight out of ten for putting not only entertainment but also education in the viewers hands in an easy to handle package that should be a lot of fun. I personally liked this A&E show, so I can easily recommend it to anyone else.