The Dr. Binocs Show
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| The Dr. Binocs Show | ||||||||||||||||||||
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 Oh, zoom out alright. ZOOM OUT AND NEVER COME BACK!
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The Dr. Binocs Show (stylized as the dr. Binocs SHOW) is an Indian English-language educational web series created by YouTube channel Peekaboo Kidz that aims to teach kids science, history, and body facts. It first aired on YouTube on March 11th, 2015, and has been airing new episodes every few days since.
Plot
Meet Dr. Binocs, a friendly creature who will teach you everything, from what smallpox is to how to prevent teeth from rotting. He'll guide you on history stories too, like who created homework and why. Zoom in along with his pet, Kitty Kat, and learn everything science-related.
Why It's Never Gonna Zoom In
- Perhaps the main problem with this show is its animation and art style. Whilst the art and animation before October 19th, 2021, was mediocre at best, starting that day, for some reason, they started copying and using The Loud House's style, which only looks awful and stilted. They even copy the background designs, showing they don't care. This is a prime example of the "It's made for kids" excuse. Even before that, their older art style was still uncanny.
- Along with that, many of the character designs look uncanny and gross, as they copy Loud House characters and make them look goofy.
- They also noticeably reuse many assets and animations. For example, Dr. Binocs' animation always is bouncing up and down, with his arms badly moving.
- It's unclear sometimes what a character is doing. For example, when Dr. Binocs looks to the left or right, it still slightly looks like he's looking at the viewers.
- Speaking of designs, at least the other better edutainment channels have simple designs. These work as simple designs can explain disgusting diseases like smallpox or vomiting and common problems like sneezing without being overly detailed as simple designs don't gross out the viewer. But compared to this show, the designs are too complex which makes it gross and overall disturbing to watch (see WINGZI#11).
- Despite being educational and teaching decent facts, at the same time, they can teach incorrect things, such as...
- In their video about the digestive system, they pronounce "Esophagus" as "Es-so-fay-gus", when it's pronounced, "E-sof-fa-gus". In the same video, "intestine" is pronounced "in-ta-stine", when it's pronounced, "in-test-dine".
- In their video about ringworm, they refer to general ringworm on the skin as "tinea capitis", when in reality that's ringworm on the scalp, and ringworm on the general skin is called "tinea corporis".
- In their video about why smoking is bad for you, they claim quote on quote "The carbon monoxide replaces the oxygen needed by the body. As a result, the user can feel shortness of breath, leading to asthma." However, asthma is a condition in which triggers like dust, pollen, and yes, cigarette smoke cause inflammation and mucus buildup in the bronchial tubes. Whilst an asthma attack can occur due to smoke, carbon monoxide itself will not cause an asthma attack when it transfers into the blood.
- The main titular character, Dr. Binocs, is a cringe-worthy attempt of a science tutor, with a corny smile. He constantly speaks in a condescending tone a la Dora. He also often overuses saying "Yes" at the beginning of some of his sentences, even in the wrong context. In his video about what would happen if you stopped brushing your teeth, he quote on quote says thisː "Or worst, plaque can damage your teeth so much that they can eventually fall off, making you feel shy and embarrassed during those selfie sessions with your friends!" Yes, really!
- Dr. Binocs' cat, Kitty Kat, is only atrocious and is nothing more than a stupid gag side character who appears at the beginning or end of the videos.
- Speaking of the end of the videos, starting at some point, at the end of the videos, when Dr. Binocs says "Zooming Out", he walks over to Kitty Kat (in most cases, though sometimes he can be alone), and usually due to Kitty Kat doing something stupid or "funny", he usually groans or laughs and says "Nevermind!", which is stupid humor.
- The videos can teach bad morals as well. For example, in their video about if you could become invisible, they list bad things to do as an invisible person, such as breaking into an amusement park without paying, cheating on tests, stealing someone's stuff, and even spying on people. And for some reason, they sound oddly happy whilst they explain this. Well, if someone decides to become a criminal once invisibility becomes possible, we know who to blame.
- Some videos even copy from other edutainment videos, including It's AumSum Time, Kurzgesagt - In A Nutshell, and especially from TedEd. Their most direct and obvious copy was the Stroke video. For more examples, scroll to the bottom. One video itself full-on directly copied everything another video Peekaboo Kidz made.
- Some videos try way too hard to be "cool", "hip", "modern", or "trendy", through the use of memes and personas. And seemingly they do this when they have to talk about something serious, like a video talking about the black fungus uses a venom meme. Yeah, uh, that's NOT FUNNY. Another video just full-on uses the "help" meme to explain what to do if you get bitten by a dog. And just look at the season 2 trailer.
- Lazy and ear-grating voice acting, with Dr. Binocs being (as we said) too slow and steady and in a deep accent, and Kitty Kat having an extremely high-pitched voice.
- Some videos are even somewhat self-aware, like when Kitty Kat said "So cheesy" to something that was playing on the screen. They knew that was cheesy, and they failed to make their content not cheesy.
- Some sounds or music play at inappropriate times, for example, in the invisibility video, at the end, when Kitty Kat hides a mouse under a few blankets, for some reason a gross-out sound occurs. In their video about vomiting, the unfitting tune in the background keeps speeding up as the vomiting progresses.
- Speaking of music and sound, the audio quality is abysmal on each video, which ranges from tolerable and okay to just awful and fuzzy.
- They can even be like an Elsagate video at times, for example, there is a video about why whales explode in blood when they die, and the thumbnail is a geyser of blood rushing out of the whale's corpseǃ That video is rated 6+, by the way, because it's defiantly kid-friendly.
- The characters also act oddly irrational; for example, in the whale video mentioned above, a kid for some reason walks over to a rotting whale with pus dripping out of it, giving him a bacterial infection.
- Lazy and clickbait thumbnails, as most of them are Dr. Binocs being shocked with often the exact same expression (check video examples) and showing a scene from the video. In one video, where they make a montage of the human body, the thumbnail has a pic of the lungs, but they are labeled kidneys, showing definite laziness.
- Speaking of clickbait, some titles can be confusingly misleading. For example, one video is called "Are Vegetables Really Healthy?", and anyone with- you know, a brain stem will think that this is gonna explain some downsides to vegetables like a debate, yet the video is just them explaining why they are healthy. There's even a moment where a broccoli says "Don't start saying bad stuff about us!".
- They also like to make compilation videos just with older videos and not disclose that to get more money. The human body montage, which they did TWICE, was an example
- Some videos are stretched to mainly 5 minutes, especially the "What If" videos, as about the first 2-3 minutes, explain unnecessary history.
- They are even slightly propagandist, as in one video, they discuss whether milk is healthy or not, and it first uses outdated info to explain why milk may cause cardiovascular disease, brittle bones, and even cancer. Then all of a sudden they use modern-day info confirming milk is healthy. This was a clear stupid propaganda video trying to milk (no pun intended) the controversy of milk.
- There was even a baby spin off, called The Baby Binocs Show, and it's even worse, as it's just Dora the Explorer combined with Team Umizoomi, and a lot of Total DramaRama mixed in, with everything wrong.
- Wasted potential: Season 1 showed some potential for the show, as it had more fluid animation and more creativity. Some episodes in that season were enjoyable as well. Unfortunately, they soon started not caring, and the animation and likableness of the series went down. And officially starting when Season 2 came, they got worse and worse, basically jumping the shark.
- Not to mention, for some reason, as a pilot, they made a really good theme song, but never used it.
- Overall, it was just a huge cash cow for Peekaboo Kidz, and that is clearly shown, as they make nothing else but it, and have stupid descriptions that are just to catch people's attention. Don't believe us? Look at the following description that was in their video about swallowing hairː
- "What If We Swallowed A Hair | Rapunzel Syndrome | Trichophagia | What If We Eat Hairs | Hair Eating Disorder | Hair Loss | Hair Loss Treatment | Swallowing Hair | Hairs In Our Stomach | Stomach Ache | Stomach Ache Treatment | Video For Kids | Dr. Binocs Show | Peekaboo Kidz" That description is only made for money, as searching up stuff like "Stomach Ache Treatment" or "Video For Kids" will bring you to this terrible channel.
Redeeming Qualities
- In concept, a show about teaching science and body facts with some comedy and answering "what if" questions is pretty decent, but it was executed poorly. This was executed better with a better edutainment YouTube channel, It's AumSum Time, even though it overuses "what if" videos and has mediocre animation.
- It does teach science and biology pretty well, despite misinformation and low budget.
- One video made awareness of dyslexia, so that shows they at least care about some serious situations.
- Decent and on-tune background music, though it can be unfitting in some cases.
- The art before October 19th, 2021 is at least original and somewhat better (though it's still bad).
- Season 1 was probably the least bad season, with fluid animation and more creativity. The first episode "Water Cycle" was a pretty decent way to begin the series. However, it seems that ever since they realized they could get away with low-quality episodes, they fell down the drain, leading to more bad episodes in that season, including "Digestive System". They even gave a bit of lore to Dr. Binocs in the unused theme song.
- Speaking of which, the unused theme song is very catchy.
Reception
The Dr Binocs Show received surprisingly decent reviews from parents and teachers, but probably because it's still a bad example of the "It's made for kids" excuse, and adults don't realize that kids deserve better, like the mentioned, It's AumSum Time and TedEd (which has better animation, creativity, and narration than these two). However, from most independent audience's views, it's mostly mixed to negative.
Trivia
- As said, starting October 19th, 2021, they switched art styles, though before then their art style was pretty inconsistent and weird, especially ones before The Loud House eras.
- The only known actor is Dr. Binocs' actor[1]. What software they are using is unknown to, though a message about the company that most likely owns this show appears.
- The show eventually aired on Amazon Prime.
- The company that owns the show, Rajshri Entertainment, resides in India.
- This was the second show Peekaboo Kidz is responsible for, the first one being The Dubby Dubs. They're also responsible for Nursery Rhymes and The Baby Binocs Show.
Video Examples
Noteː The one about fruit seeds is where they started copying The Loud House.
Copied Video Examples
As said earlier, these videos are copied and too similar to other edutainment kids videos. Here are some current examples side by side (copied video on left, and original on right) to the video they [may] have copied we have so far. Note that it is unsure whether it's official that these videos are most likely copied from the other, though it is a low chance they're not for most of them.
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- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mmDUrXgWkU (description)