TV Reviews : ‘Horizon’ Offers a Look at Lovemaking in the Wild

“Sex dominates the world,” believes Princeton biology professor James Gould, who goes on to back up his assertion--without once mentioning Freud--in the quirky premiere of “Horizon,” a 12-part science series that KCET has picked up from the BBC.

“Making Sex Pay” (9 tonight, Channel 28) is the provocative title of this 50-minute (eye-) opener. No, Geraldo Rivera doesn’t show up with a segment on prostitution. The whole program is devoted to detailing the sex lives of animals (with an emphasis on birds, fish and a variety of icky insects) and how this relates to human erogenous behavior.

If you can make your way through the occasionally beastly aspects of lovemaking in the wild--which reaches its nadir in scenes of females eating males while they copulate (the operative word here)--information, insights and humor await you.

Among the things we learn: why many females are “more choosy” than males, why some males tend to jump in rudely and ask questions later (while others go through elaborate display or gift-giving procedures), why there’s a continual battle of the sexes in nature, and why males fight each other over females.

Then there’s an array of oddities: a water bug who wants to make sure his wife’s offspring are his, jealous male birds, sneaky female birds, animals who “cheat.” Also--not to leave out our own species, there’s a section on why men and women alike look for kindness and intelligence in mates over all other qualities.

The program has its own quirks. The photography seems grainy and unevenly colored after all the superb nature photography we’re used to on PBS and elsewhere. And it starts out narrated by an unseen British voice, which introduces us to Gould and is never heard again.