Iiiiiiiiiit’s SHARK WEEK! Finally! With all the stress I’ve been dealing with lately, it’s nice to have a pick-me-up. And, most importantly, it gives me a reason to actually take a break from sitting at my desk. My physiotherapist will be pleased. So let’s dive right in and see what Shark Week has to offer this year.
Crikey! It’s Shark Week: This was a fin-tastic episode to start off the week. Conservationist Robert Irwin teamed up with diver Madison Stewart and Shark Week regular Paul de Gelder to dive in to the world of sharks. As he learned more about sharks and built up towards a cage dive with great whites, he compared his knowledge of crocs to his newfound knowledge of sharks while speaking about his father’s passion for these magnificent apex predators. Steve Irwin believed that if you can make people fall in love with something, they’ll want to protect it – and this is what Shark Week is all about. Most importantly, it was clear from Robert Irwin’s passion that he is now on team shark. The best part was seeing how excited he got after a dive as he told his mom, Terri Irwin, all about the sharks he just saw.
Tiffany Haddish Does Shark Week: She ready! Tiffany Haddish teamed up with Dr. Toby Daly-Engel, and then Alana Elocot and Dr. Craig O’Connell to study different aspects of shark reproduction. There was special attention paid to the female sharks, which was pretty significant given that Tiffany is the first female comedian to appear on Shark Week. Obviously, some scenes were filmed for laughs, but Tiffany got dirty (literally) and got involved in the science. And she did really well. The thing I admired the most is that she was determined not to bring fear into her encounters with sharks. Throwing shade at the male celebrity guests who had come before her, she said that the thing she noticed the most about those shows was the fear. Understandably, there were some nerves when she was swimming with sharks, but there wasn’t the sense of overwhelming fear we got from guests like Mike Tyson and Shaq in previous years. Tiffany kicked ass, and I would love to see more female celebrities on Shark Week going forward. And yes, this episode did contain shark porn.
Jackass Shark Week: Dr. Craig O’Connell is back for another episode! But this time, he’s supervising the Jackass crew as they conduct “experiments”. This was, by far, the most gimmicky show of the night. Although there was some attempt to inject some science into this, the Jackass antics were the main focus. There really wasn’t a whole lot of substance to this show. Personally, I’m not a fan of Jackass, but if this brings a whole new demographic to Shark Week, there’s nothing wrong with that. However, I did gain a lot of respect for the Jackass crew by the end of the episode. When one of their members was bitten by a shark, all of them – including, of course, Dr. O’Connell – said that the shark was not at fault during this particular incident. They also acknowledged that when you’re a daredevil, no matter the situation, you always have to be prepared that something could go wrong, as it did in this case. Poopies did something he was not supposed to, and the shark retaliated. I mean, I’d be pissed too if someone did a cannonball on top of me. So I was really glad to see that the Jackasses took responsibility for their actions and didn’t take the easy way out by blaming the shark. But my favourite part of this episode was that, in so many shots, the look on Dr. O’Connell’s face said “Why me?” and “I’m so done with this shit.”
Josh Gates Tonight: As much as I’ve enjoyed this show in the past, I’m going to have to skip it this week. And unfortunately, this is the only Shark Week show that does not get daytime reruns. The reason I’m skipping it: I’m tired. First of all, I don’t usually stay up this late to begin with, so staying up until midnight is just a little too much for me. Especially while I’m still recovering from the side effects of my second vaccine. But the second reason is that I have been having sleep issues recently – the kind I’ve actually had to talk to my doctor about – so it’s just really not worth it for me to stay up for a talk show that will most likely just recap everything I’ve seen so far. Maybe next year I’ll tune in to Josh Gates Tonight if my sleep isn’t so messed up.
This was a fin-tastic first night, even if I did have to end it early. Unfortunately, I do have one issue with Shark Week so far. Well, actually, I have an issue with the Discovery Channel. This year, they’ve launched some exclusive Shark Week content on their Discovery+ streaming platform. That’s great, but there’s a catch – Discovery+ is only available in the U.S. and I live in Canada. I’m pretty frustrated with that because I really want to see some of those exclusive shows and documentaries. I would gladly pay whatever price they want for their streaming service, if only it was available in my country. Oh well. Hopefully, they make it available in Canada next year. Until then, I’ll just have to watch the non-exclusive stuff. As long as I get my fill of Shark Week content, that’s all that matters.
