Smart stuff, but a few more fish would have been nice
Once in a lifetime. Voyage of discovery. Dive into the unknown. These are the clichés uttered by Liz Bonnin in the opening seconds of Galapagos (BBC One) but, for once, they could hardly be deemed hyperbole. Bonnin was tagging along with a scientific expedition hoping to assess the prospects of creatures on and around a chain of 13 islands with over 1,000 species unique to them.
As ever with nature documentaries these days, the sense of wonder was underpinned with a sense of impending doom – and quite right too. The Galápagos Islands are regularly exposed to the ravages of climate, with erupting volcanoes and hurricanes more or less a way of life. Happily, Bonnin and co found that many of the species were remarkably adaptable.
On the land lurked pink iguanas and giant tortoises. Only around 200 pink iguanas remained on a single island, but they were in good nick; the hope was to move a few to a second island to start a new community. The tortoises, too, were faring better than expected, with an encouraging number of underground nests identified. And then there were the sinister-looking marine iguanas, dubbed “imps of darkness” by Darwin. Their general well-being is a good barometer for the health of the islands and the prognosis was cautiously optimistic; their ability to contract and extend their backbones according to the amount of food available was a genuinely astonishing revelation. Throughout the hour, however, we were rightly counselled against complacency. The future of these islands remains uncertain.
Later on, Bonnin joined pilot “Buck” Taylor and descended 1,000 m in the ship’s submersible in search of undiscovered species in the unexplored ecosystem of an undersea volcano. Bonnin has one of those mouths that can smile with the corners turned down. This expression of unbridled joy-cum-mute terror was unveiled on several occasions during the descent. Eventually, the former won out as chimaera fish, bright coral starfish and the warty octopus (unpromising in name, graceful and beautiful in appearance) made memorable cameos.
The problem is that the BBC’s wildlife series are becoming a victim of their own success. This was informative, occasionally gobsmacking and carried an important message. It also, by the standards of
Planet Earth II, felt a little workaday – but then, what doesn’t? Unfortunately humans – even ones with brains as highly evolved as these ones – can only be a disappointment compared to the wildlife. I’m not proud of it, but I was left wanting a little more spectacle and a little less science.
It takes some nerve to make a spin-off from a series as beloved as The Good Wife, but perhaps its creators felt they owed its fans something after an underwhelming finale. Certainly, the chutzpah of The
Good Fight (More4) was admirable, as was the panache with which it was executed. In landing an innocent party into a crisis not of their own making, it directly aped the premise of the original series, but added a few smart tweaks.
This time, rather than Julianna Margulies’s stay-at-home mother being forced to take up law once again after her husband was sent to prison for his personal and political disgrace, the focus was gifted but entitled young law graduate Maia Rindell ( Game of
Thrones’ Rose Leslie), whose rapid rise up a leading Chicago law firm was brought to a crunching halt by the collapse of her father’s Ponzi scheme.
Running parallel to all of this were the continuing adventures of Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), Maia’s godmother and every discerning fan’s favourite character from the original series. On the cusp of comfortable retirement, her friendship and financial investment with Daddy Rindell left her professionally compromised and close to broke.
So it was that she re-entered the fray as the latest recruit of a predominantly black firm against whom she had been conducting her final case – an open-and-shut example of racially motivated police brutality. Naturally, she took Maia with her to join new colleagues including the combative, commanding Lucca Quinn ( Good Wife veteran Cush Jumbo) and stentorian, wry Adrian Boseman (Delroy Lindo, always an enormously reassuring and authoritative presence).
This is both a set-up ripe with potential and that shamefully rare phenomenon, a showcase for three fascinating, three-dimensional female leads. On the basis of this supremely confident and appealing opening statement, this case could – and should – run and run.
Galapagos ★★★ The Good Fight ★★★★