Their idea of a good time is grossing you out

Like TV’s other science shows, these series are microscope porn. More than a minute or two doesn’t pass without focusing in on some grotesque, minuscule savage either swimming in a slide or re-created through sophisticated graphics. The “CSI’’ shows dabble in this genre, as does “House,’’ when the week’s medical case involves microorganisms. But both “Monsters Inside Me’’ and “Bite Me With Dr. Mike’’ spend a significant part of each hour obsessing over teensy killers, sharing stories about how they live off human hosts, can lay dormant for decades, and will rob you of your eyesight, your brains, and, oh yeah, your life.

The lighter show is “Bite Me With Dr. Mike,’’ on Tuesdays at 10, as virologist and self-labeled “adventure junkie’’ Dr. Mike Leahy travels the world seeking out vile little creatures, ingesting them, and waiting for them to wreak havoc. This week, Dr. Mike swims in the germ-infested Ganges and eats unwashed vegetables in India, hoping against hope for roundworms. Finally, at the end of the hour, after bringing a stool sample to a laboratory and getting diagnosed with giardia, he poops out the episode’s denouement. I won’t spoil the surprise.

Of course, in a note at the end of each episode, we’re told that some scenes are staged or re-enacted, so “Bite Me’’ is probably heightening matters to some extent. But Dr. Mike is so jovial and carefree, he’s hard to resist, pulling off his shirt at a moment’s notice to experiment with the healing powers of leeches. With his British accent adding a jaunty meter to everything he says, he brings comic liveliness to lines such as, “Their eggs are expelled in our feces, and you get reinfested when infested excrement finds its way into your mouth.’’ Emphases not added.