They have plots that audiences care about not knowing beforehand. And they reflect that wildlife shows have gone far beyond stately theses (think early David Attenborough) or brash showboating (think Steve Irwin). They are warranted, and often demanded by audiences. That I included spoiler warnings for a nature documentary is telling. It has drama, a plucky underdog (underpus?), and a twist ending. Here is a fight scene brought to you by millions of years of evolution, and weeks of stakeouts by ever-patient camera-people.
#WATCH BLUE PLANET 2 EPISODE 1 TV#
Such behavior has never been witnessed by either TV audiences or scientists, and it is as thrilling a bit of television as exists. As a shark investigates, the octopus explodes out of its ersatz armor, and jets to safety. So-and again, spoiler warning-it grabs nearby shells with its suckers and arranges them into a protective dome. It is released but now finds itself in open water, patrolled by more pyjama sharks. Even though the octopus finds itself at the wrong end of a shark, it manages to escape by-and major spoiler alert- slipping an arm into the shark’s gill slits to prevent it from breathing. As it goes about its business, ambushing wayward crabs and hiding in crevices, it becomes suddenly menaced by a pyjama shark-a small and slender predator that yanks it out of its hidey-hole. The resulting episodes, each narrated by David Attenborough in his trademark velvety tones, are hour-long distillations of wonder, featuring sequences that would be breathtaking had earlier shots left you with any breath to take away.Ĭonsider the octopus from the “Green Seas” episode. They literally stared into the abyss-and then repeatedly entered it. They hung off speedboats to film dolphins rocketing behind them. They stuck their cameras into coral crevices.
The Blue Planet II crew traveled to 39 countries to capture over 6,000 hours of footage. It is almost transcendentally good-the product of a team that, after six decades of experience, is now at the height of its powers.
#WATCH BLUE PLANET 2 EPISODE 1 SERIES#
I offer these tidbits, these credentials, to properly frame the following claim:īlue Planet II is the greatest nature series that the BBC has ever produced. I celebrated David Attenborough’s recent 90th birthday by binge-watching all 79 episodes of his Life Collection for the umpteenth time, and ranking them all. In the intervening decades, I have devoured almost every show that the NHU has cared to make. I remember exactly when and where I first came across their work-a VHS copy of Life on Earth, bought from the gift shop of London’s Natural History Museum at the age of 8. Can Medieval Sleeping Habits Fix America’s Insomnia? Derek Thompson
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