RM - Atomic Assassin

This week River Monsters presented "Atomic Assassin", where JW went to Chernobyl to catch a giant mutant fish known as {som}, only to discover that it was his old friend the wels catfish... but it isn't that simple.

For a start, I believe that RM and JW had to do some re-writing of the episode's script: the first 5-10 minutes or so appeared to follow JW's usual monster-hunting schitck that included going into the local folklore (this time, the Ukrainian/Slavic folklore) to find more info about the monster and to get some sort of a spiritual (real or not) guidance to catch it. Not this time, though - this time the folklore angle had been completely abandoned. Why? Because of Chernobyl.

I do not want to discuss as to whether or not Chernobyl was the worst nuclear disaster ever - the States had their own problems with Long Island, and Japan's disaster in the 21st century was at least as bad Chernobyl. Period. That said, the report that JW - intentionally or not - has presented via AA was very impressive, many media sources, both Russian/Ukrainian and Western seem to believe that the life in the locale of Chernobyl explosion is recovering from the blast - JW showed that that wasn't the case both with fish and with a bird (I believe that it was a so-called marsh tit). I, for one, certainly didn't know that wildlife was struggling so badly in the locale of the explosion, you know?..

On the other hand, I have to confess that the fish caught by JW, starting with the pike and perch and ending with the catfish looked certainly hale and hearty enough, if I were to come across them in a fish stall or somewhere else, I certainly wouldn't recognize them as radioactive mutants. On one hand this shows the danger of radiation poisoning: you may not know that you ate contaminated food. On the other, this shows the tenacity of life: the fish may not be flourishing as it may appear at a first glance, but they still survive, they still endure..as do the birds, the plants and other creatures in the locale, as shown by the RM.

Also, on a less serious note, this episode has practically shown all of the large carnivorous fish of Europe, short of the turbot. But the turbot is basically a fresh-water cod and Ukraine is too warm for it. Period. Speaking of fish...

The other main difference between this episode and previous ones, such as "Asian Slayer", when JW went to Asia to catch the Golden Mahseer (another giant catfish) is that JW actually delivered in this episode, he caught his fish. Don't forget - RM is first and foremost a fishing show, and so some fishing, and preferably successful fishing must be seen. When that doesn't happen, the episode is usually a flop, when it does, the episode's a success.

(Another thing that made this episode a success is a small number of flashbacks, unlike the "Colombian Ripper" episode, for example - these flashbacks are only counterproductive and annoying).

The only negative aspect of this episode was the 'som' shtick - it could be spun only so many times before the viewers, even those who didn't know any Russian/Ukrainian at all, realized that it was a wels catfish that JW's interlocutors were talking about, you know? JW didn't need to spend that much time playing his audience. That aside, though, this episode was very enjoyable, for me at least.

So: many interesting facts, both about fish and other topics, a successful fishing excursion and overall a dramatic and exciting ep. I give 4.5 out of 5 stars at least.