Studio: BBC

Reviewed by: Jordan C.

I kinda feel like Arctic and Antarctic shows/films are played out. I mean, I know people are always down to watch quirky penguins and hear the sob story of a solitary polar bear…but enough is enough. I seriously fell asleep to at least half the episodes (if not more). The pristine landscape shots and the soothing music are a recipe for dosing off. However, I persevered and watched each episode until I actually made it through, but not until the last three did I see the goodness that reminded me why I never miss a BBC nature series. For me, I watch these shows to see something new. Well, that is exactly what I got in the Winter episode when I was introduced to a “brine-cicle”, a danger to ocean floor dwellers and one of the oddest phenomenon I’ve ever seen. And how about the reindeer herders who regularly move their sizable homes on giant sleds/skis pulled by the reindeer! This is the real goods.

What impresses me most about the BBC’s nature shows is that the huge budgets for the various series are often used to fund scientific research. For example, in The Last Frontier episode we get to watch the first scientific expedition into the Antarctic’s subterranean ice caves. The ice formations inside are strange and even a little surreal. Attenborough even suggests that scientists are looking into the possibility that the wonderful and complex structures are formed by bacteria (ie: living icicles).

I also usually enjoy the short “making of” featurettes that follow each episode (only on DVD or Blu-ray) but I need to go back and watch couple of these ones, as getting through the seven parts was hard enough in the first place. I will recommend a BBC nature series yet again with Frozen Planet but be prepared to endure a lot of the penguin/polar bear fluff before you get to the good stuff.