Last night, I found out some devastating news. Whilst excitedly looking into what episode 4 of Big Ideas was about, I stumbled across an important factor I didn’t know from the start: it’s only three episodes. While I spent the rest of the day questioning my existence, I decided that, for the time being, it was valid. So here I am, a sad panda and all, bringing you the final episode of my most recent obscure favorite show, that is now tragically over.

The final episode is about a topic that’s much more important than visually intriguing: energy. A topic that’s so widely discussed, I don’t even need to give examples. Trying to find a new fuel source that is also replenishable is quite a hard job, and leaves us mostly with the options of natural power. This episode in particular deals with natural energy in the forms of wind, water, and the Sun. Captain Planet would be so proud.

Most of the sources drew power from the Sun, and half of those involved a complex series of mirrors. Unfortunately the mirrors are by far the most exciting part. Using the sun, focused into a beam like a magnifying glass to ants, temperatures that can melt steel were obtained. It’s pretty amazing to see the Sun melt steel, and being concentrated into ways that can power cities. But wind and water turbines are only so exciting. I’m glad the technologies exist, but that’s one thing I don’t really need to see working, even if it is free power.

Overall, it was a lackluster finish. It’s pretty dissappointing that there won’t be an episode next week to come back and kick ass like the first two episodes, and that almost makes it worse. James is such a fantastic presenter, and truly cares about the information he shares. Hopefully this series will be rushed to DVD so everyone can appreciate it in the states. But for the time being, I guess there’s always Top Gear. If only it was more about what made the cars so awesome, and not just Clarkson talking about why he’s so awesome. Who does he think he is, me?