As far as I am concerned, the success of each individual episode of RM depends on several factors, but the most important, or basic, or central one is the fish. In this episode, the "Invisible Episode", the fish that JW is after is yet another catfish - the vundu catfish, one of the biggest catfishes in southern Africa. JW loves catching catfishes, and overall RM is a good show, but this episode was not. What went wrong?
The catfish. I am not against JW catching catfishes - after all, with him it's not just the fish, but it's also the fishing technique and the promise, and here the promise failed. Unlike the "Asian Slayer" episode, where he failed to catch the mahseer (even though he had caught it once, when he was fishing for the goonch in "Killer Catfish"), here JW did catch the Vundu, but it was far smaller than what the audience may've expected it to look like.
Is that important? Tricky to say. Unlike the "Asian Slayer" episode JW did not go overboard with the local culture, and of course the native wildlife - Nile crocodile, hippopotamus, tigerfish, etc. - were present as well: both factors that make "Invisible Executioner" different from the other episode. But because the final catfish - the Vundu catfish - was far less impressive than how JW made it sound, this episode isn't as good as it might've been. The Vundu simply doesn't look like any executioner - just like a regular catfish that may be able to swallow a child - but it also may not; in fact it looks like it does not. Any arguments? I would be happy to argue!
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