River Monsters
Recently, I discovered an Animal Planet series on Netflix called River Monsters. And I have to say… I love it. The best way to describe this show is: Nature Porn. It’s what you would get if you tried to make a NATURE documentary into an episode of COPS.
It’s over the top at times, but that’s part of the charm. There have been more and more “dramatic re-enactments” as the show’s progressed, which are annoying… but I stick around because the formula is pretty great. Hosted by Jeremy Wade, here’s a typical show in a nutshell:
1) Jeremy Wade mentions an urban legend or story about a fish attack.
2) He travels to remote location with fishing gear.
3) He tests the legend with his body (sometimes).
4) He tries to catch the fish “so he can see it for himself.”
5) He catches the fish.
6) I blurt out Oh my god, look at the size of that thing!
Since it’s a documentary, part of my brain feels like I’m learning something new. But really, all I seem to be gaining is a growing fear of entering large bodies of water.
Unfortunately, Animal Planet doesn’t allow people to embed their YouTube videos. So I’ll have to send you over to YouTube to see an example of the show. In this clip, Wade is tracking down the Arapaima and is visiting a fish farm to help the workers trap a single fish. Here’s the clip.
I’m so very happy to have stuff like this available via Netflix Streaming. Love it.
River Monsters is an awesome show, the first time I saw an add for the show I was like, “Did you see that! It took him into the water!” Ever since then I have been addicted to the show. Yeah they do over dramatize the story at times but it builds up the anticipation for what you eventually see. As a Dish Network employee I get to see this show in HD at my convenience. That is important because between work and school I can’t really bend my schedule to fit TV. I definitely like how I can bend TV to fit my schedule. I think this show just extends a phobia of water that I had after seeing the movie Jaws as a kid… There is something in me that just can’t stop watching.
Ray (February 14, 2011 at 8:02 pm)The content is somewhat interesting, but OMG is the over dramatising pathetic. Everything this guy says is impending doom, danger, life and death. This is the problem with most nature shows now. It encourages killing, if we don’t kill these “monsters” they will kill us attitudes. And don’t even get me going on the horror movie music.
Craig (April 5, 2013 at 2:53 am)