'Planet Earth: Blue Planet II' Recap - 'Big Blue'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK... 

​Of the many, many reasons that I outright enjoy Planet Earth: Blue Planet II, one that stands out in my mind today, is the sheer fact that no drop of our vast and incredible oceans are left unexplored by this series. We’ve seen how life thrives at the extreme poles of our planet and at the bottom of the sea. We’ve been witness to the incredible beauty that inhabits our coral reefs and well, in the next episode of this stunning saga, the time arrived at last to examine the sheer vastness of our oceans, and wow, did this episode deliver quite the punch.
 
Because ‘Big Blue’ truly gave all of us a wonderful understanding of just how massive and vast our oceans are as a whole and well, this made for quite the breathtaking tale where we were often treated to an endless horizon of blue, and well, seeing the enormity of our oceans quite frankly gave me pause and it’s rare to enjoy a documentary that makes you ponder on your place on the world if even for a moment, but this one pulled that off with its stunning visuals. But while that was a poignant and humbling moment to enjoy, there was of course learning to be had since this episode also focused heavily on how life survives in this massive expanse of water.
 
If anything, we quickly learned that survival here isn’t easy, but it’s possible and it takes some serious effort from the species that swim through the open ocean and that allowed for us to settle in and see how they pull that off and really the story in this tale that stuck with me the most was that of the baby sea turtle, who swam for seemingly miles on end to find a piece of flotsam to call home and it was simply stunning to see a community appear around this hunk of floating wood just for an opportunity to enjoy shelter and food and it just goes to show that it doesn’t matter how difficult the odds are, life will do its best to find a way to survive and thrive.
 
But there were plenty of other fascinating moments to be found in this episode as well. Since we learned about some of the birthing habits of the Whale Shark, and how Sperm Whales coddle their young and we even learned about how some of the birds that traverse the oceans survive. However, what would this series be without discussing our impact on the oceans and it did that in heartbreaking fashion in this tale as we saw the impact that plastics have on the various species of the sea and once again, this segment gave me pause, simply because it served as a fine reminder that we can all do better when it comes to matters such as these.
 
However, despite the harrowing ending to this episode, there was still plenty of beauty to be found and once again this episode was feast for the eyes and I really cannot get over the quality of work that has gone into this documentary and the incredible moments that the people behind the scenes have managed to capture in the vastness of the seas. As always, this episode left me hungry to learn more about our world and our oceans, but alas…wrapping up this episode means that I am now all caught up and will have to wait until Saturday to get my Blue Planet II fix and at this point, I’m counting down the minutes until it arrives on BBC America so I can once again find myself immersed in a sea of wonder. Until next time.

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