In this week's episode JW chose to investigate the so-called "vampires of the deep" - the little known and enigmatic lampreys.
What does a lay person know about the lamprey? Probably little to nothing. The lamprey (and its cousin the hagfish) are the only jawless fish in the world; technically they belong to the vertebrate group, but in reality they have no bones, and have survived almost unchanged since the dawn of time. Impossible Pictures' mini-series "Walking with Monsters" (2005) feature two kinds of jawless fish: unarmored (Haikouichthys) and armored (Cephalaspis). Neither had any mouths and fed by sucking in various edible debris from the sea floor. The lamprey larvae feed in the same manner; the lamprey adults are active predators instead. Personally, I doubt that JW attaching an adult sea lamprey to his neck was a good idea, but that's why JW is the man, on the other hand...
The lamprey's natural history aside, was "VotD" an exciting episode? Yes. For one thing, there were plenty of fish species and fish catching featured in this episode. True, there were flashbacks to episodes past, but at a tolerable level still - no "Colombian slasher" this episode, no sir! JW's attempts at making suspense, on the other hand, were annoying, and at a level with "Atomic Assassin": pointless, for anyone with some logic and knowledge of the natural world would figure out the attacker's lamprey identity early in the episode.
But there was another tie to "Atomic Assassin" and similar episodes (such as "Russian Killer" from S4) - the ecological one, the impact of humans on nature. On one hand we have an infestation of sea lampreys in lake Champlain caused by human meddling, and on the other - there's the rapidly falling number of Pacific lampreys caused by the same meddling. This human factors transforms "VotD" from a very good into a really great one - it is particularly interesting to observe JW aid the Native Americans assisting the Pacific lamprey in utilizing the so-called 'lamprey ladder' to get to their spawning ground...
Thus, it is safe to say that in the end "Vampires of the Deep" was a very good episode, if not downright great: the only flaws was the pointless 'guessing game' of JW in the first third of the episode, and the unresolved question as to why the greater redhorse (the catfish caught in this episode) actually went after live prey (a fishing lure actually), showing behavior atypical to this species. Ah well, not even JW had time to solve and uncover everything in a single episode... Maybe next time. Lol.
Showing posts with label Atomic Assassin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atomic Assassin. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 June 2013
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
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.
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.
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