TV REVIEW : ‘Sex’: A Natural Attraction

If Cole Porter had written the theme song for tonight’s “Nature,” it would probably go: “Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it, let’s fall in sex.”

Because in this show they all do it! Sea horses and rats and wasps and elephants and even humans get in the act in “The Nature of Sex,” a six-hour PBS series airing tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday (9-11 p.m. on KCET-TV Channel 28 and KPBS-TV Channel 15).

The first hour, “The Primal Instinct,” explores in amazing detail the animal kingdom’s astonishing diversity in making whoopee. We’re talking diversity with a capital “D”--sex practices that would curl Pat Buchanan’s hair, rites that are startling, amusing and, sometimes, violent.

All God’s creatures are driven to reproduce, to pass on their genes, and the production team behind this “Nature” outing--via superb camera-work--have captured some pretty outrageous stuff going on behind the bushes, underground, underwater and in the air.

All of that behavior comes home to roost later as we see some of the ways different species raise the inevitable offspring.

The second hour tonight, “A Time and a Place,” takes a different tack, examining how cosmic forces such as the sun, moon and rain influence courtship, mating and birth. It also details the complex signaling systems employed to attract mates, which range from the subtle (bird songs) to the laughable (humans, of course).

Tuesday’s episodes look at mating rituals and the evolution of human sexuality, while Wednesday’s return to the themes of incubating, birthing and raising the offspring.

Are six hours of sex too much? Probably. You might want to tape some segments for later viewing. Warning: If you watch it with the kids, be prepared to answer some very interesting questions.