Whale Wars

This show is surprisingly enjoyable when viewed as a comedy. If taken seriously this show is quite bad. Make sure you watch it with friends so you can laugh together at hilarious failure upon failure. Find that character that you love to hate. Crazy environmentalists wage a "war" trying to stop Japanese whaling in the Antarctic, but they are startlingly ineffective. Watching the clueless Sea Shepherd try to outmaneuver whalers with limited resources and poor tactics creates a truly fascinating television series. Brainless ideas are abundant and mistakes are guaranteed to be repeated twice. How many millions of dollars in donations are these clowns going to waste while they try to figure out the secret of saving a whale?

Some Figures monstrous and mis-shap'd appear, Consider'd singly, or beheld too near, Which, but proportion'd to their Light, or Place, Due Distance reconciles to Form and Grace. - Alexander Pope

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, so go ahead and call the crew of the Sea Shepard fools if it makes you feel superior. Make jokes about what you would do if you were a whale, but you should know something about this series called Whale Wars.

It is unusual, and it is raw. If you have not seen it, it is something different than shows like Deadliest Catch. It puts us on the scene of a confrontation between two philosophies.

Maybe some things look deformed and clumsy when viewed up close, but with a proper distance their form is something of grace and beauty

For what it's worth, my view of the world has grown into something cynical, and I find this program truly compelling.

Separating politics from the show is a critical first step to deciding whether this show is watchable or not. Whether you want to slaughter every living thing on the planet and eat it, or whether you don't think humans should kill anything and absorb our nutrition out of the air is irrelevant to the quality...

That being said...

Does the show entertain: yes. God knows each time those guys and gals do something you are just waiting for one of them to screw up. These people are not professionals and their lack of training is beyond apparent. Also you have the disconnection between the captain and reality. Everything that happens (including every misstep) is spun into a positive happy message... and the show allows the knife of the camera to cut right through the bull. At the same time you also get to see the world from THEIR perspective.

The show is NOT about whaling... the show is about these guys and gals behavior in an very strange situation. THAT is what documentaries are about... and this show is done well....

I really do appreciate what these people are doing for the benefit of the whales, but the show is completely lacking of excitement. The crew seems like they sometimes have absolutely NO idea what they're supposed to do, and they end up falling back to their captain who just sits there writing poems. And to add onto all of this, they have the WORST of luck, which makes the show that more unwatchable. The only thing that this show has going for it is the way these people are actually doing something about the whaling industry in Japan. If you are looking for another documentary style show, I would recommend 'The Deadliest Catch'.

Watching the show I would have to agree with the woman interviewed from Greenpeace who said "they (the Sea Shepherds) have set our cause back years." Paul Watson, the Captain and Paul Brown, his first Mate, seem like completely unprepared grade school children. However that may be the shows motive to display just how unprepared and haphazard the crew is…yet willing to risk it all to save the whales.

My opinion, the Sea Shepherds would be far better off taking pictures of the Japanese whaling ships, their captains and their crews. Find out who they are and posting their pictures and all their information on the Internet. Throwing stink bombs and harassing the Whaling boats just aggravates the whalers and escalates the situation.

Although I do not agree with the tactics the show has informed me of the unnecessary killing of an endangered species for money and using "research" as an excuse. The show is certainly worth watching once you get past fact the captain and first mate are bit immature and their tactics are a pretty worthless. I will continue watching and am curious as to whether the Sea Shepherds will learn anything from their mistakes. I recommend watching an episode or two and posting your opinion.