Drain the Oceans

While sometimes captivating when it explores lost cities or missing airplanes, this show teeters more towards sunken ship exploration 99% of the time. I waited years to finally sit down and enjoy what seemed like a great concept - and I was all in for a show about geology and geography; exploring the deepest trenches and unseen landscapes we never see. Unfortunately, this show is not that. It hasn't taught me anything I haven't already learned from other historical documentaries. Too much time is spent giving a history lesson, and then the ocean is very briefly drained. I eventually found myself skipping episodes because there are only so many sunken nazi warships and u-boats I can take before the show becomes one-note. Even an episode about the Egyptian desert someone manages to focus on mysterious boats buried in middle of the desert. Enough with the boats already. There are a few interesting nuggets - such as the underwater geography of Alcatraz and how it played a part in derailing potential escapees; the search for Atlantis and the sunken Port Royal, showing all the potential for what this show should be - but episodes like that feel few and far between. I expected a more even distribution of shipwrecks, differing world coastlines, continental shelves, coral reefs, what islands really look like with water drained away, etc. Quite frankly, this show would be more accurately titled "Draining Sunken Ships" because that seems to be the focus.

"If we could drain the ocean!" was annoying the first time. After hearing it 15 times I felt compelled to create an IMDB account and shut it off. Did the director/producers ever bother to watch this?

I went on a binge of all the current "documentaries" on Disney+ recently and they are all basically unwatchable. They literally annoy you the whole way through. But you sit and deal with it for the few minutes of interesting information each episode.

I would easily pay to see these edited by a sane person. Music GONE. Repetitive narration, catchphrases GONE. Recapping what you just watched over and over GONE (and punishable by prison time).

It's like every documentary has this cookie-cutter template. I simply can't imagine anyone enjoying how they chose to edit these.

If you're up for some brutal punishment to see some interesting stuff, dive in, and have your trigger finger hovering over the fast-forward button, so you can keep skipping ahead.

...and don't forget to "Drain the Oceans"!

The show was interesting and I looked forward to each ship story but dang, could you have gone at least 60 seconds without saying 'drain the lake' or 'drain the ocean' over and over again?

Firstly, I agree with other reviews about the repetitive narratives - the phrases and boastful phrases touting the technology to "drain" away the water (and silt) to reveal what remains - however, it is the history and the discussion of discoveries that keeps me intrigued. Matching how what is observed on the sites and the wrecks (or what remains - sometimes only piles of rock determined to be ballast from ships long gone) with what the historical record is intriguing. Learning the significance of particular details is not only fascinating but eye opening in that they use these to help you understand the point of view and prevailing cultures and habits of the time.

If you enjoy history, this is a delight. To avoid the irritating repetition you need to (a) always skip the intro and (b) not consistently binge. I recommend no more than three episodes at a time with a week or so in between the next session.