(CNN) Can Bill Nye really save the world? Probably not by preaching to the choir, which doesn't make his half-hour Netflix show "Bill Nye Saves the World" any less noteworthy as a breezy blow struck on behalf of science, despite a few structural miscalculations.

The title alone speaks volumes: Premiering more than 20 years after "Bill Nye the Science Guy" started on PBS, the new series is pitched primarily toward adults, casting the bow-tie-wearing Nye as an advocate and science warrior, trying to beat back the anti-scientific thought and quackery that's prevalent, especially within the political sphere.

Nye turns his attention to a different topic in each installment. They include the need to vaccinate children, the reality of climate change (inevitably) and applying a "Quack-O-Meter" to alternative medicines.

The episodes feature the host engaging in low-key, roundtable discussions with experts, and also taped pieces -- dispatching a correspondent to India, for example, to document the success vaccination has registered there in preventing polio. Nye's explanations are clear, simple and often funny, capitalizing on a sort-of nerd-chic personality that's well suited to the program's micro-budget, including perhaps the world's tiniest studio audience.

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The producers, however, apparently felt pressure to up the ante on entertainment value, and rather unfortunately chose to add what amount to little comedy sketches to illustrate their points. Those segments range from celebrity cameos (Zach Braff drops by to rail about the climate) to having different actors portray various diseases, modeling T-shirts with names like "POLIO" and "INFLUENZA."

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