No one can get over this heartbreaking moment from 'Blue Planet II' last night
The show did not disappoint
Last night, Blue Planet finally returned to our screens after 16 years away. Normally, when the wait is anything close to that long, the comeback can’t help but feel like a bit of a disappointment. Not so with Blue Planet II.
The series’ opening episode, ‘One Ocean’ was every bit as stunning as we could have expected. We saw rays leaping out of the sea like ballerinas, one of the ugliest fish you might ever lay eyes on turn from a female into a male, and the giant trevally fish literally plucking birds from the sky and gobbling them up in little more than a single bite.
But the part that resonated most? The heartbreaking scene at the end of the episode, which showed walruses and their pups trying to deal with the very real effects of global warming.
With the icecaps melting, the walruses struggled to find slabs of ice big and thick enough to pull their babies up onto and keep them alive.
Watching their plight, it was impossible not to feel the burden of responsibility as humans for what was happening, and understand how urgently we need to start taking the problem of global warming - far more needs to be done than we currently are.
The scene became all the more devastating when we learned about the close bond walrus mothers and calves share.
David Attenborough told us how, while male walruses will eventually leave their mums and go off to start their own family, daughters will remain with their mothers for life - a bit like how you used to tell your parents that you were never going to leave home when you were a naive kid.
Unsurprisingly, people were wiping away tears by the time the segment was over.
The good news is that with six more episodes of Blue Planet II still to come, the BBC is going to keep up entertained basically up until Christmas.
And next week’s episode could be the most fascinating of the series - it’s titled ‘The Deep’, and will explore all the extremely messed-up shit that lives right down at the very bottom of the sea. Aliens that live on Earth, essentially.
It goes without saying that we’ll all be ready on the sofa at 7.58pm sharp on Sunday.
(Images: BBC)
