The sixty-seventh TV show: #606 The Blue Planet
For our sake, we included Blue Planet II in this watch - might as well, right? - and as that finished tonight, I'm checking it off today.
There's something amazing about nature documentaries, especially when done right, especially when the behaviour is new to you. Blue Planet works well with this, as the sea life it documents is so much more alien to us. Whether you go deep underwater, in places where people have not been seen before, or stick to the rock pools that rely on the flow of tides, there's so much weird life there is.
This is, of course, partially down to it being a great place for life to develop and diversify, which shows here. There are sea animals that are more intelligent and show quite different behaviour, while others are recognisable, simple, but also show where else it can lead. And it feels like a lot is discovered even as these documentaries were being made, showing how much more complex this life is than we think.
At the same time, it shows how fragile the environment can be and how important it is to be careful and try to protect our oceans in the same way that we want to protect the rest of the planet. It's scary, sad, and you can only hope it is something we can turn around.