TV Reviews : ‘Living’: Thoughtful Look at Risk Assessment

Do we need a three-hour program to tell us that life is full of risk? Maybe not, but then, PBS’ “Living Against the Odds” (tonight at 8 p.m., Channels 28 and 15; 9 p.m. on Channel 24; Saturday at 9 p.m. on Channel 50) doesn’t feel like three hours. For a science report reminding us of all the terrible things that can happen to us--particularly those beyond our control--it is unexpectedly light on its feet.

It is not, however, light in the head. Even with comedian Richard Lewis laying on his patented, Angst- ridden shtick as host (it’s hard to buy Lewis’ litany of troubles when he’s so well put together), “Living Against the Odds” never succumbs to the Dumb Science TV Syndrome, which supposes that gravity needs to be explained with a cartoon. There is animation, but it is as funky as the idea of having poet Andrei Codrescu drop in every once in awhile for his ironic, surreal insights.

Whether it is looking at everyday hazards (in hour one), or natural disasters (hour two), or environmental hazards (hour three), “Living Against the Odds” plays variations on the theme of risk assessment, in which life runs head on into statistics. How, and why, for example, are our actions determined by perceptions of danger, and how can technology help minimize risk--and sometimes create new ones?

With an underlying theme that life is never free of risk, and with a principal underwriter like Chevron, one might assume that a hidden agenda is at work here: Corporate polluters are forever feeding citizens this same theme as a means of defending this pipeline or that nuclear power plant. By its final hour, though, “Living Against the Odds” comes down fairly squarely on the side of consumer protection, worker safety and democratic action, and against such inane public policies as those that require a single city to take on a region’s, or state’s, hazardous waste product.