All the Sharks follow four teams of two as they travel the world with one goal: get as many pictures of as many different sharks as possible. Each shark is worth a certain number of points depending on how rare they are at that location.
At the end of six weeks, the team with the most points will win the grand prize of a $50,000 donation to a marine charity of their choice. I appreciated this part of it. It made the whole venture feel far more… classy, if that’s the correct word for it.
This isn’t just a bunch of random people chasing fifteen minutes of fame. These are actual scientists and nature photographers who genuinely love and study sharks and rays. (After all, flat sharks are still sharks!)
Their enthusiasm is infectious, and it's palpable through the screen. It makes it a very joyful show to watch, even when your more traditional competition elements creep in. There’s some genuine strategy and tactics at work here, with debates over whether a team should try and rack up a lot of points by photographing many common sharks, or if they should go the high-risk/high-reward track by trying to find a rare, high value shark.
No matter what, we’re still given a lot of shark facts. Shark Week and SharkFest are staples on my TV every summer, but I still learned things I never knew before. I saw species that I’ve never seen before, either.
The underwater photography is beautiful in places, as well. There’s one moment involving orcas that was simply stunning. The water was so clear, and they moved so fast that it took my breath away.
It’s not perfect. Every scuba dive that the contestants go on (and that is their main method) is laden with long, very dramatic ADR conversations that very obviously didn’t actually happen. No one was talking to each other on the dives. They communicated with hand signals or via writing.
That annoyed me, and it got more annoying the more I watched. Once I realized that it was fake, then I couldn’t ignore that.
I was also a little disappointed in the sharks that we didn’t see. Every episode mentions a rare shark that will be worth a ton of points if anyone manages to capture a photo of it, but there are several episodes where that shark never appears. I understand that wild animals are unpredictable and that there’s no guarantee what will show up, but if you get my hopes up for a specific species then you better deliver.
There is also a shift midway through. For the first three episodes, all four teams advance to the next round. Starting in the fourth episode, one team is eliminated and does not continue on to the next location. I wish that they had either kept everyone the whole time or that they had eliminated a team each episode instead of trying to do half and half. It completely changed the vibes from something more lighthearted into a more serious competition. I liked that first vibe more.
All the Sharks is still a fun, informative way to spend six hours. It’s an easy binge, and money got donated to charity at the end of it. That makes it a very lovely breather in the midst of all of my shark movies.
Random Thoughts
Every team has its own punny name. My favorite was “Gills Gone Wild.”
The entire thing is hosted by Tom “The Blowfish” Hird. I have no idea who he is, but Google calls him The Only Heavy Metal Marine Biologist. He was a pretty good host. He was fun.
It was amazing to see just how much they were pushed around by the currents underwater. I didn’t realize that they could be that strong.
~~~~
An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally watches far too many shark movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.