Les secrets des pieuvres

I have watched this series many times now and always end up smiling, fascinated, and incredulous at the intelligence of these incredible marine creatures. The photography is absolutely stunning and elevates the documentary into superior movie status. I fell in love with Scarlett the Day Octopus, and enjoyed Dr Alex Schnell's relationship with her. I like to think that Scarlett considered Alex, a friend. I did enjoy the chat with James Cameron and understood his fascination with marine animals, influencing his creation of his Avatar characters. I'm a huge Avatar fan too, and I understand the link between the two. The information imparted during the three episode series was relevant and incredibly interesting. Understanding the complexity of an octopus brain only benefits humans and hopefully leads to a kinder and more responsible management of our oceans.

It is so BBC-like, it is hard to believe it wasn't made by the BBC's nature department. The camerawork is outstanding in every sense but that's just half of the story. How it develops, from part to part, is also sensational. Whoever wrote the narration was on top of his/her game, and definitely took well good notes of how it is done properly. Paul Rudd follows suit and does an "Attenborough": a measured, lovable, cool and occasionally funny narration perfectly in sync with the emerging pictures. No lurid BS here which poisons modern documentaries so often these days. It is by far the best non BBC made documentary for years. Well done. A footnote for Paul: Whenever you are struggling with an A-lister BS, you are always welcome here.

The actual detailing of the abilities of the octopuses was very interesting and generally well filmed. It's just too bad that's not what this series stuck with.

The 3 episodes seems to focus WAY too much on what the biologist/scientist "feel" about the octopuses they are studying. I thought it was supposed to be about octopuses, not about how the people studying them feel or imagine octopuses think.

I liked Rudd's voice over work. I disliked all the scientists voice overs. The scientists narratives made this far less about "secrets" and more about speculation or wild leaps to anthropomorphize octopuses. "I like to imagine she's dreaming about me." Really? Come on.

The James Cameron bit was pointless and self-indulgent.

An absolutely gorgeous look at the earth's most magnificent creatures. I knew octopuses were cool but this has taken my admiration to a whole new level!

The shapeshifting into a stingray was impressive only to be outdone in the next scene by the poisonous sea snake - with colors to match. Just incredible. And the octopus that lays her eggs in the empty bottle. This footage seems almost impossibly close.

Far more incredible than my own human species that writes reviews about these miraculous creatures by mocking the gay community. I wonder if AI really does eliminate humans for their uselessness it will decide to keep octopuses for the intelligent companionship.

Paul Rudd does a good job too.

The actual footage of the octopuses is incredible. However two things don't work for me, one being the fact that the music is louder than Paul Rudd's narration, making it hard to understand what he's saying (maybe it's my tv?) and the other is the actual narration. I find that often the emphasis is put on the wrong words. Just seems amateurish. I love everything else he does though. Octopuses are amazing and I can't watch enough shows about them. I love that they're having a moment and hopefully end up on fewer dinner plates.

Why does this review have to be so long. The requirement is for way too many characters.