Frozen Planet offers a compelling look at nature
Documentary series profiles polar regions
Frozen Planet (Discovery Channel, 8 p.m.), BBC and Discovery Channel’s eye-filling and occasionally heart-rending documentary series about the Earth’s polar regions, moves to its regular day and time tonight, starting with what is arguably the highlight episode of the entire series.
Titled, simply, Summer, it profiles Antarctica and the Norwegian Arctic during that time of year when, as narrator David Attenborough – Alec Baldwin in the North American version – describes it, “A single day lasts for months.”
Polar bears and orcas take pride of place in tonight’s hour, and there is filmed footage here of both predators that has never been captured on camera before.
From the opening seconds –when a mother polar bear takes to open water, surrounded by cliffs of ice, and her two half-grown cubs tentatively follow – to the moment when we’re told a fully grown bear may not eat again until the end of summer (“so it’s better to save energy and just doze off in the sun”), Frozen Planet is gorgeous to watch.
There are chilling moments, too. It’s hard to watch humpback whales frolicking unchallenged off the Larsen Ice Shelf and not think of Whale Wars, but the only human presence in Frozen Planet are the cameramen who brave the cold water and jagged pack ice, so we can watch from the safety and warmth of the family couch.
There’s a harrowing scene, too, when killer whales coldly and methodically track down a minke whale, over a period of several hours, eventually drowning it and tearing it apart. That’s nature, though. Where Frozen Planet separates itself from the pack of blood-’n’guts quasi-documentaries is in its offhand, matter-of-fact approach. It’s an unblinking and surprisingly honest portrait of life on this planet, with moments of great beauty interspersed with jolts of frightening violence, followed by a lingering sadness.
There are sights in tonight’s hour that are truly astonishing. As the ice melts off Antarctica, a 500-mile coastline is revealed for the first time in seven months, and the vista – photographed from on high by helicopter – is achingly beautiful. It’s hard not to feel a twinge of empathy as a sea of penguins hurry to raise their chicks “before the deep freeze returns.”
Farther out to sea, under a 24-hour sun, the ice melts into twisty, bizarre, and even artistic ice sculptures, as compelling and pleasing to the eye, perhaps, as any sculpture in a man-made gallery.
There are some curious, littleknown facts, too. Polar bears, for example, dry off after a swim by rolling around on the ice, because, we’re told, “ice absorbs water like a towel.”
Of course, it helps to have naturally long body hair, too.
For all the beauty on display, there’s a powerful, if understated message. It’s not mentioned in so many words, but it’s there. Frozen Planet is not a screed about climate change, but the signs are there, and will be obvious to anyone who watches closely.
Polar bears, we’re told, “must use this special time wisely, for it will not last.” Every summer, the bears have to adopt new hunting strategies, or else risk starvation.
Frozen Planet is no downer, though. It’s a compelling, at times profound, look at nature as it exists today, “at the ends of the Earth,” and tonight’s episode, in particular, will appeal to a broad audience.
There’s room for some optimism, too, as we’re reminded toward the end in a sequence where a mother fur seal brings home a meal for the kids: “This time there is a happy ending.” Let’s hope. Are you fond of a particular chain store or string of coffee houses? Have you ever gone to an unfamiliar location, on a whim, only to be unpleasantly surprised by the lack of service or shoddy ambience? Have you ever wished you were the CEO, so you could make changes on the spot?
That happens, in a way, in tonight’s Undercover Boss (CTV, CBS, 8 p.m.). Harlan Kent, CEO of Yankee Candles, a leading manu- facturer of scented candles, goes undercover in his own company, and ends up blowing his cover at almost every turn.
Who Do You Think You Are? (Citytv, NBC, 8 p.m.) asks My Big Fat Wedding and Mamma Mia! producer Rita Wilson who she thinks she is, and she’s surprised by the answer: Though born in Los Angeles, her father was born in Greece and lived in Bulgaria and Turkey before emigrating to the U.S., and her mother grew up an ethnic Greek in a small village in present-day Albania.
The story that emerges is the classic tale of hardscrabble immigrants escaping poverty and repression to start a new life in the New World.
Tonight’s episode of Grimm (CTV, NBC, 9 p.m.) is new – some TV listings have that wrong – so if you’re a fan of the show, you’ll want to tune in. The episode, Island of Dreams, revolves around the robbery of a spice shop with some exquisitely rare, and dangerous, spices. An interesting place to shop, in other words.