The Lake at the Bottom of the World

6.7 stars.

I would not elect to see this ever again, it's a one time watch. It's sufficiently entertaining enough to sit through once. It's a basic documentary about scientists in Antarctica who are attempting to get soil samples from a sub arctic lake. The lake is over 1000 feet below the surface of the ice, where the scientists are camped out in large tents. They have erected temporary, but sophisticated tent-lab structures, where they can do basic testing and analyzing samples.

This documentary is basically a short story of how they are having difficulty getting good samples. They explain why they are doing the research and the obstacles they face.

Most of this is camera work and minimal dialogue as we watch people move around. Once in a while, we get to enjoy a bit of fragmented conversation or comments, a pithy remark here and there, some science humor, a bit of nerves due to sleep deprivation... but everyone is happy to be here. You can feel the excitement about their profession and their dreams of being a part of Antarctica science expeditions. I don't know if these people are paid, they probably are, but if a person wanted to volunteer to further scientific research, this would probably be a fun thing to consider.

This is a documentary about Antarctica field research, so many may find the content rather boring. However, having a fascination for places like Antarctica and an interest in science, I found the documentary fairly insightful and relatively entertaining. This particular field research is unique given the environment. The preparation and execution of this expedition is admirable. Considering the quality of film, it is overall good, but not great.

This film is not without the obligatory climate-change narratives. Some of the featured researchers and ultimate "discoveries" draw conclusions beyond the scope of the experiments, confirming the political motivations. Nonetheless, it didn't completely overshadow the film.

For audiences drawn to Antarctica or those interested in unique field research, it's worth a watch.

I feel gratitude just from having been able to watch it. This show was amazing. I think its great work like this is being done. The scientist are amazing. It's easy to admire their intellect & skill. I hope to watch more shows like this in the future. It's always nice to see science advance thru present time. I would like to see the you younger generation move into these phenomenal roles life has to offer. I don't think mentioning anything about climate change is wrong. It's factual. You either hear it, accept & believe it for what it is or Not! Everyone is entitled to their own thoughts & opinions. Just be kind. Stay positive people.

Interesting to see what they did and how they did it! The climate change theme wasn't as bad as many of these type documentaries, so it is well worth the watch. 10,000 years ago when there was salt water up there would seem to take man out of the equation or at least rank our impact as correlation vs causation. This documentary was actually beautiful to watch and informative on how they had to live to perform their experiments. Like my title says, this would have been a great adventure to collect the samples like they did. It would have been nice to have some summary of any information they collected once the samples were studied, although that may have gone against the man made climate change manta.

The science was very interesting. The rest seemed forced and a lot like climate propaganda. Some of the people seemed shallow and silly. But there was an hour to fill. The required guy with a uke was there and of course they couldn't say 'Merry Christmas'. Merry Salsa....give me a break. If the science interests you it's ok but the rest is a drag and rather boring.