River Monsters - "Mongolian Mauler"

In this episode, JW goes to Mongolia to catch one of the rarer fishes of the Northern Hemisphere: the taimen. A cousin to salmon and trout, this is an alpha predator of the Mongolian rivers, where calm flows get interrupted by the rapids at any minute. And?

And it was a very good episode. Firstly, because it was centered on the action - on the fishing. The infamous "Asian Slayer" episode, for example, was focused mainly on the local tradition of the native ethnos, with the actual fishing shown in very small amounts, rather inappropriate for a fishing-based show. But to each his or her own, one supposes. In contrast, the "Mongolian Mauler" episode (yeah, it was probably named so for the M-M alliteration) had relatively little ethnic flavor, mostly the usual witch doctor (here shaman) blessing JW for luck, and that was all. (Seriously, JW gets blessed with fishing luck so often that one honestly wonders just what is his faith?)

The animals played a big role too. The various fish that JW caught were very impressive (if a bit on a smaller side of JW's catches), and the Siberian pit viper was even more so: North American audiences may know about the various American rattlesnakes (about the Canadian - less so), but the fact that some live in the Old World is usually a surprise to them. (The pit viper in the ep wasn't a rattlesnake, but the Mongolian counterpart of the water moccasin instead.)

Finally, there was the reference to Mongolian ninja - apparently, unlike their Japanese namesakes, those are illegal gold prospectors (rather like those from America's Old West) rather than assassins for hire, even if they kill people too. If Mr. Kishimoto was making Naruto a Mongolian, rather than a Japanese-based cartoon, then Naruto would be more like a western, it seems. Ah well, Naruto-canon is still cool (and if Madara had a mustache, he'd still find an insane way of conquering the world).

So... an impressive fish character of the ep., other featured wildlife is also interesting, and the ethnic factor was just right. If it wasn't for the pointless (in my opinion) references to Genghis Khan that cropped up in the episode, "Mongolian Mauler" would've been great. As it is, it was still one of the best episodes of this show's S4 so far.