Absolutely adore 'Planet Earth', one of the best documentaries ever made and actually is more than that. Have remarked a few times that it and its recent follow up (every bit as good) did for nature and out planet as 'Walking with Dinosaurs' did with the dinosaurs. David Attenborough is widely considered a national treasure for very good reason, no matter how much he himself dislikes the term.
The final 'Planet Earth' episode "Ocean Deep" perfectly lives up to the never less than great quality of the rest of the series, is a great representation of what Attenborough is all about and what a good documentary should be like. "Ocean Deep" throughout, as with the previous ten episodes and with Attenborough at his best, is an awe-inspiring, utterly transfixing experience where one forgets they're watching a documentary and instead feeling like they're watching art. This may sound like extreme hyperbole, but to me and many others 'Planet Earth' is completely deserving of its praise and even deserving of more. To me as well, it is easily one of the best the BBC has done in years.
"Ocean Deep" has so much to praise it, and nothing to fault, that it is difficult knowing where to start with the appraisal. It for starters looks amazing, one of the best-looking of the series in fact. It is gorgeously filmed, those aerial shots are awe-inspiring, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting more with the inhabitants) way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic. The scenery is some of the most breath-taking personally seen anywhere, whether in visual media and real life and the rich colours positively leap out. The music is epic but has just as many quieter moments that speak just as much. The main theme is unforgettable.
Regarding the narrative aspects, "Ocean Deep" can't be faulted there either. The narration has a great well-balanced mix of facts that will be familiar to the viewer and others that will induce the right amount of surprise. In short, it's just fascinating, informative and thoughtful, and no other documentary in existence has taught me this much about trees. Everything is intriguing and illuminating, with as much for children to be inspired by as well as adults, and there is just enough freshness to avoid it from becoming stale. Attenborough delivers it beautifully, there's a soft-spoken enthusiasm and precision about his delivery and he never preaches.
'Planet Earth' always succeeded in the emotional impact. "Ocean Deep" once again does that.
The undersea creatures are a great mix of the adorable and dangerous and there is a wonderful strangeness about some of them. The underwater world has a huge amount of beauty and mysteriousness, one that one really immerses in.
Nothing episodic or repetitive here either. Despite covering a lot, there is a real sense of the episode having its own individual story with real, complex emotions and conflicts and the inhabitants developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.
To conclude, more 'Planet Earth' magic. 10/10 Bethany Cox