Shark Week 2016, Pt. II: Shock and Maw!
[This is Part II of a three-part recap of Shark Week 2016. To read the introduction and Part I, click here .] Tuesday, June 28 Wrath of a Great White Serial Killer -- As I mentioned in the prologue to this recap of Shark Week 2016 , I disdain documentary titles that play off the shark’s image as nothing more than an unthinking eating machine or lurking monster. Equating them to a singularly human form of predatory slaughter is even worse. This series of docs is the worst offender in my mind, hosted by Brandon McMillan, who comes off (to me at least) as the John Walsh of marine biology, driven by personal near-tragedy to pursue the purpose behind a particular series of shark attacks. The lead case of interest here is a non-fatal (he says “nearly fatal”) great white attack on his friend, surfer Kenny Doudt, off the coast of Oregon in 1979. Kenny finally drowned off the same coast while surfing in 2010, but I don’t see Brandon trying to figure out why the same water t...