Sunday, March 18, 2012

Frozen Planet Debuts Tonight on Discovery

Heads up for the latest magnificent nature series. Frozen Planet premiers tonight on Discovery and it will take us to the bone chilling northern most and southern most regions of our world. These icy lands are full of breath taking beauty. Who among us would not want to see the Aurora Borealis? Spoiler alert: it will also feature some top of the food chain predator cruelty. I saw a preview where a pod of killer whales (the gangsters of the deep) capsize a poor fat seal who was sunning herself on a floating cake of ice. A terrifying chase ensued, and I had to avert my eyes. Nature is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. It's especially dangerous when you put a very, very smart mammal brain into a fast water animal the size of a sport utility vehicle. I will never understand why all the Sea World Shamu orcas don't rise up and turn their human slave masters into a quick smorgasbord. Look how clever the orca in the picture above is, spy hopping so he can see all the delicious seals on the ice.

It took Discovery over four years to create the seven episodes that will begin airing tonight. They'll cover all the seasons of the frozen lands, as well as a special segment on global warming. Be sure to check out the website where you can find gorgeous photos and a wonderful live penguin cam generated by Sea World. I generally don't approve of the latter as I don't believe that large predators should be kept in captivity. But I have to admit that those water birds look pretty happy. Maybe in their case they realize that life at Sea World trumps becoming dinner for an orca.

Here's a little Frozen Planet preview. It looks glorious!



2 comments:

Jane said...

I have to comment on my own post to say that now that I've seen the first enstallment, this is a "don't miss" nature series. It has some of the most extraordinary photography I've seen on TV. I'm not even sure how they did some of the geologic events like iceburgs being born and floods. No wonder it took them four years to make it. Really wonderful job, Discovery.

Lisa said...

I have read other great things about this and I am going to watch and hope that many others do, too. Thanks for the heads-up and we should keep promoting this!