Seaspiracy

Seaspiracy

Director: Ali Tabrizi

Well, one thing is sure: Seaspiracy really lives up to its title. A British activists sets out “on a journey” (Yes, there are still documentaries that use that old terminology “I’m on a journey”, which my producers and I used to make fun of about 15 years ago) to uncover the ugly truths about our oceans. Cues for spooky music, over the top sound effects, shocking footage of dolphins and sharks being killed and wild stats and obscene claims which basically tell us that even organisations as big as WWF are hypocritical and lie about facts and the stark reality, which according to this documentary is that if we carry on like this in less than 30 years we would have exhausted all the resources from the oceans. This is grabby stuff of course and I’m sure many people will be horrified and appalled (as it’s proved by its very high rating on imdb), but look at it closely and you’ll find that this is essentially a mish mash of stuff made by a YouTuber with an expensive “Netflix-stamp-of-approval”.It looks flashy, it rattles along and it sells the idea it all to you pretty well and there are indeed some interesting moments here and there, as well as striking images (those in Thailand at the start for example), but let’s be honest, this is cheap “journalism” of the lowest calibre, with some very hammy lines of commentary (“you heard of blood diamonds, but this is “blood shrimp”) and very misleading facts, thrown at the audience and driving the message home that basically eating fish is a lot worse than an oil spill in the ocean or killing Wales. According to Seaspiracy, it’s impossible to have sustainable fishing and whoever tells you that they are doing it is lying. The labels on the fish you buy are lies and actually the fish you eat has more pollutant than anything else you might breathe. The scale of the conspiracy and the lies are too huge to even comprehend, all the way to our governments and ALL of our charities and organisations intending to protect our marine wildlife. And while of course I appreciate the core message, I think this sensationalistic approach, lack of depth (ops.. that came up naturally without thinking…haha, pardon the pun), conspiracy theories backed up by no interview no longer than a couple of soundbites, cherry picked facts and some guerrilla style secret-filming eventually harms the seriousness of the issue and make it look like something from Tik Tok. But then again, people will lap it up. I was tempted to rate it lower, but I recognise its strengths even if I’m beginning to be a bit tired of these one-sided conspiracy-filled pieces.

As I was looking for photos for this post, I came across this article, which just proved my point: https://www.theguardian.com/…/seaspiracy-netflix…

On Netflix