'Planet Earth: Blue Planet II' Recap - 'The Deep'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

​Perhaps the true beauty of diving into a brand-new documentary series, is that you never quite know where the story is going to take you next. Sure, you’re fully aware of the fact that you’re going to learn something special about something unique in our world, but not knowing exactly what that will be adds an extra level of anticipation when it comes to the next chapter in the tale and the endless possibilities of what new wonders I was about to discover and the excitement that comes with that, just so happened to be front and center in my mind as I settled in to watch to the next episode of Planet Earth: Blue Planet II.
 
After all, I was curious as to where else could we go in the world’s oceans to continue to captivate the audience and my mind when it comes to this saga, and as it turns out the best way to do that was to head into, ‘The Deep’, and this particular chapter in this documentary lived up to its namesake by taking us as far down as one can go into the sea to uncover the wonders that thrive far beneath us and it accomplished this incredible feat in several stages, by heading into the water beneath Antarctica, and by exploring a pair of places known as the Twilight Zone and the Midnight Zone, and each of these unique areas offered up some incredible discoveries.
 
For example, I was taken aback by the stunning ecosystem that exists beneath the ice of Antarctica since one would surmise that little, if anything, could survive such frigid temperatures, but lo and behold, there is plenty of life down there, doing just fine and while that alone would have been enough to carry this episode, we still had other places to explore. Such as, the void of the Twilight Zone, which is on the way down toward the bottom of the ocean, wherein the light begins to fade and it is a place where such voracious creatures as the Humboldt Squid exist, a species of squid that will resort to cannibalism if necessary to survive.
 
But truly, the centerpiece of this particular episode was when we reached the bottom of the ocean, a place also known as the Midnight Zone, where we were privy to the many magnificent species that thrive under incredible pressure and in total darkness, since the sun doesn’t reach this far down and it was simply breathtaking to see how many species survive at this depth and it was amazing to learn that there are species in this place that live for millennia and of the many species in this ‘void’, the one that caught my eye in this particular tale was the Six Gill Shark, a species without a dorsal fin and one that is vastly different from its brethren up above since it can survive an entire year on a single meal. 
 
Yet, what I enjoyed most about this episode, was the sheer fact that the bottom of the ocean felt like another world through and through, and it wasn’t the strange creatures that inhabit this place that pulled off such a feat, it was the sheer quality of the camera work that the brave souls behind this documentary provided. This unprecedented and high-quality look at the bottom of the ocean truly drew me into the darkness surrounding well, everything, and it was so well done that I simply lost myself in this strange world within our world. Either way, I am digging this documentary through and through and it’s doing such a wonderful job of captivating my imagination that everything about this saga is staying with me, long after each episode comes to an end. Until next time. 

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