Photograph: Courtesy of Prime
A nature documentary on an order of cephalopods is probably not quite what Amazon had in mind in 2019 when it signed television’s hottest writing talent, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, up to a “golden handcuffs” deal worth $100m over five years. But here is Octopus! and quite how or why it came about will probably remain a mystery as deep and unknowable as any eight-armed creature disappearing into the crevices of the ocean floor ahead of a curious camera.
Ours is not to reason why, but to sit back and enjoy an idiosyncratic nature show, full not just of breathtaking footage of the extraordinary creature and input from experts in the field, but of animated, stop-motion recreations of parts of its life cycle, interviews with celebrity fans and plentiful comic asides and fourth-wall breakings from the narrator, Waller-Bridge herself. Describing one female great pacific octopus’s last few months collecting plentiful “sperm packets” from passing males, Waller-Bridge adds: “Legend.” When Ms Great Pacific chooses “Mike’s” packet”, Waller-Bridge explains that although he has “zero prospects, commitment issues and lives in a rough part of the ocean … he was the tallest, after all.” She – or rather Gabriel Bisset-Smith, who wrote the narration, which must also have Amazon execs rubbing their eyes and flicking through that deal contract again – plays too on the famous Fleabag line and comments, “This is not a love story.”
