PLANET EARTH: BLUE PLANET II
BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY MINISERIES PREMIERE: You can tell when something really, truly special shows up on TV, because this site’s TVWW contributors, coming at it from various angles, are all over it. And that’s the case with this newest Planet Earth nature documentary series, Blue Planet II, narrated by the peerless David Attenborough. So read, please, the full and enthusiastic reports by David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower and Alex Strachan’s TV That Matters. But trust me, too, please. Blue Planet II is the kind of show that not only makes you glad you have a TV with widescreen hi-def, it makes you happy to be alive to witness the marvels of nature it presents. Every episode, and this is no exaggeration, contains images and creatures that are flat-out amazing – as is the photography. The technological advances that change with each of these ambitious Planet Earth outings keep making them miraculous pieces of television (in this edition, they literally go where no man has gone before, to ocean depths never before witnessed or photographed directly by humans). But also making these shows miraculous is Attenborough himself, by remaining resolutely and remarkably consistent, enthused and concerned about nature and the planet, for about three-quarters of a century of TV filmmaking. Watch every episode, beginning tonight, with your entire family, and record them all. You’ll want to see them again, a lot.