The Most Extreme

The Most Extreme is a long-running documentary television series on the American cable television network, Animal Planet. It first aired on July 1, 2002. Each episode focuses on a specific animal feature -- strength, speed, flirtation, appendages, diet, etc. -- and examines and ranks 10 animals that portray extreme or unusual examples of that quality. The rankings are not arrived at by a scientifically rigorous process; they serve only to give a broad depiction.

Along with each animal on the countdown, the program presents a computer graphics segment which compares the animal's ability with something equivalent in humans by computer animation in green (in the short-lived half-hour mode, blue) also color of both logos, followed by an interview segment with people who share some common trait.

The series is made in New Zealand by a small production team at NHNZ. As of March 2008, there have been 77 episodes.

Tropes used in The Most Extreme include:
  • Badass: This programme shows you why some animals are that Badass in nature.
  • Killer Rabbit: Many of the highest ranking animals are also the smallest (example: The Most Extreme Fighter was the ant, while The Most Extreme Predator was the shrew.)
  • This Is Sparta: How the show usually pronounces its title.
  • Top Ten List: Of the most Badass animals in a category, no less.

Tropes used in individual episodes:

Episode 1: Jumpers

Episode 2: Gluttons

Episode 3: Speed

Episode 4: Births

Episode 5: Cheats

Episode 6: Survivors

  • Nigh Invulnerable: The water bear, which can survive extreme temperature, lack of water, high radiation and even in a vacuum!

Episode 7: Fighters

  • Zerg Rush: The ants won this one as they attack in numbers and use co-operation to defeat their opponents.

Episode 9: Horrors

  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The snake won second place, as many people fear them due to not knowing whether the snake they're looking at is venomous.

Episode 11: Strength

Episode 14: Moms

  • Death by Childbirth: The Most Extreme Mom was the sea louse, whose young eat their way out of the mother.

Episode 15: Dads

Episode 16: Venom

Episode 20: Predators

  • Hyperactive Metabolism: In the literal sense. The shrew was the winner as it required to eat three times their own body weight in one day to survive. And that meant lots of killing, hence giving it the title.

Episode 21: Stinkers

Episode 22: Super Senses

Episode 26: Oddities

  • Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The male anglerfish is tiny, and attaches itself to the female anglerfish so that it can suck her blood and reproduce with her. (unsurprisingly, the anglerfish was the winner)

Episode 31: Monster Myths

  • Big Badass Wolf: The wolf won this one. When people heard a wolf howling, people think the wolf is out to get them. That is why they believed in werewolves, even though there has never been a healthy wild wolf killing a human in North America. Never Live It Down, indeed.
  • Piranha Problem: The piranha's aggressiveness is exaggerated. When they're not hungry or are asleep, they flee from anything that disturbs them, including humans. This got them second place.

Episode 32: Killer Cats

  • Panthera Awesome: However, the winner of the category was the house cat
  • Cats Are Mean: The house cat was the most extreme killer cat as it can hunt and kill over 1000 species of animals. FOR FUN.
    • Justified, in that house cats are more likely to engage in what is known as "Surplus Killing" (IE: When an predator kills another animal without eating it). House cats were originally domesticated to hunt rodents in farmhouses and storage areas that were eating the crops. However, thanks to modern-day cat food, cats no longer need to hunt mice for food. Their predatory instincts are still there, however, and said instincts are so strong that they'll simply hunt and kill rodents even when they don't need to.

Episode 33: Battle Of The Sexes

  • One-Gender Race: The winner was the Whiptail lizard, where the women were the winner as no males exist.

Episode 36: Super Dogs

Episode 40: Poison

Episode 41: Super Sharks

Episode 44: Deadly Snakes

Episode 47: Hissy Fits

Episode 48: Living Dead

  • And I Must Scream: The fates of these animals, all three of which get stuck in suspended animation before they get killed.
    • Ant– It can stay in suspended animation for as much as eight weeks when it ingests a liver fluke liver fluke.
    • Earthworm– They are paralyzed by one of the venomous mammals, the shrew. They can stay in suspended animation for three weeks.
    • Tarantula– They are paralyzed by a tarantula hawk and used as storage for its young, and can stay in suspended animation for as much as two weeks until it gets eaten by the baby wasp.

Episode 52: Appendages

Episode 53: City Slickers

  • Everything's Worse With Monkeys: Monkeys were the Most Extreme city slickers, as they had become dependent on humans there. To the point of stealing food and clothing from humans- if the human didn't give food to the monkey, the monkey would run off with their clothing!

Episode 57: Animal Myths

  • Never Live It Down: In-Universe: the lemming and its false reputation for committing suicide gave it the 1st place.

Episode 60: Weird Weapons

Episode 62: Pirates

  • Made a Slave: The Amazonian ant does this to other species of ants by raiding their victims' nests and stealing their eggs. The ants that hatch are then made slaves to the Amazonian ants. (It won because of this ruthless behaviour)

Episode 65: Awesome Ancestors

  • Feathered Fiend: The Terror bird, which won second place.
  • Stock Dinosaurs: Tyrannosaurus Rex, Smilodon and Wooly Mammoths.
  • Tyrannosaurus Rex: Not the winner, though.
  • You Fail Biology Forever / Somewhere a Palaeontologist Is Crying: Tyrannosaurus Rex was more closely related to your standard chicken than it was to the Komodo dragon. A more appropriate anscestor for the Komodo dragon would be the mosasaur, a sea-going lizard that lived around the same time as the last dinosaurs and are thought to be distantly related to modern-day monitor lizards.
    • Not to mention that T.rex had many traits similiar to those modern-day birds and was most-likely warm blooded, unlike the cold-blooded Komodo dragon which has more standared reptilian traits. Oops.
    • Also, Saber-toothed cats were not the ancestors of the clouded leopards, but instead went extinct leaving no descendants.

Episode 68: Nightlights

Episode 70: Medics

  • Healing Factor: The ability of the salamander, which gave it first place.

Episode 71: Freaky Fliers

Episode 72: Body Snatchers

Episode 74: Gadgets

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