'Frozen Planet' is no relief from planet Earth

After the seven killings at a California college, after the heavy sadness of the Trayvon Martin shooting, after the fierce tornadoes in Dallas and the rising body count in Syria, I’d had enough. And that was before Wolf Blitzer even went to a commercial break. The evening news, which basically broadcasts 24/7, overwhelmed me last week.

Teachers reportedly gave grades for sex, a man claimed that Satan killed his mother and a JetBlue pilot went berserk at 35,000 feet, forcing panic and an emergency landing.

I turned off the news and sought relief on the nature channels. Used to be, PBS or Discovery would offer a soothing balm to the world-weary psyche.

First, there was the story of newly hatched baby turtles, scratching their way across a wide, sandy beach to get to the ocean. A deeply serious voice-over told viewers that predators were watching, and sure enough, just as the darling babies moved into open territory, the hungry birds swooped, talons extended. They grabbed the hatchlings, ripped them open and ate until they were so full they couldn’t eat anymore. Then the fiddler crabs moved in.

Finally the segment was over, but soon a herd of gazelles were trying to cross a river filled with crocodiles. In one scene, a young gazelle bent into the river to get a drink and a huge croc leaped out of the water and swallowed the baby head-first.

Once upon a time, nature shows were once upon a time, but wildlife journalists and photographers have apparently embraced the reality-show mentality. There is no filter on the lens.

The Discovery Channel’s “Frozen Planet” featured polar bears starving to death on the melting ice floes and mother penguins on a death march to the sea to find food for the hatchlings they left behind with the daddies. I get it; loss is universal and eternal, and there is no escape. But please, no more seal pups in extremis.