The Dark Wizard (series): One of the best documentaries I have ever seen

Have you ever watched something that was so riveting it made your palms sweaty and was tough to watch at times yet you couldn't bring yourself to turn away? Have you ever sat down to watch just one episode of a series and 4 hours later you have no completely screwed up your sleep schedule because you couldn't possibly stop watching because you had to know what happened next?

Have you ever watched a show that you already know the ending to and they don't make this a secret at all but you can't help but continue watching?

Well all this and more is what I experienced when watching The Dark Wizard which is a 4-part documentary about a guy who was a rock-climbing legend, a thrill-seeker, and a deeply troubled individual that ultimately resulted in his own demise.

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I probably ended up hearing a thing or two about Dean Potter as I was growing up but seeing as how my life was pretty detached from the rock climbing community and it is a sport that I have only ever participated in one time, I didn't take much notice of Dean nor would I know until a few days ago about how famous this person was in the rock-climbing world.

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When you are watching this telling of the life and death of Dean Potter, you may end up feeling like I did in that this guy lived a sort of "playtime" life with very little actual responsibility yet he was constantly depressed. This is something that I think all of us normal people have a difficult time identifying with. I felt the same way about Robin Williams and the singer for Linkin Park. It is so un-understandable to me how it is that someone who seems to have it all can have a death wish.

In the case of Dean Potter he wasn't suicidal, but some of the only enjoyment he seemed to get out of life was by doing things where one small mistake would almost certainly result in his death. When he would make it through to the other side of these death-defying stunts, we would see a look of happiness that he doesn't often exhibit in any other parts of his life.

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The telling of Dean's story from the viewpoint of his family,very few friends, his relationships with women, and all his accomplishments is done extremely well but what made this series so unmissable is the shots that are taken that made my palms sweaty even though I was under a blanket in a freezing room with the air con blasting.

I am afraid of heights and I think most people are. The way in which Dean tackles these certain death if you screw up situations in a mostly calm manner is just incredible to me and involves a level of courage and extreme faith in one's abilities that us mere mortals cannot even imagine.

The thing that this guy accomplished was taking something that people already could do but doing it a lot faster. He first burst onto the scene when a well known mountain had been climbed before but it took 20 hours. Dean did it in 4.

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The way in which he and his climbing buddies just hang out near a sheer cliff face so casually is terrifying to me. I have been near something like that just a couple times in my life and I basically crawled to the edge to peer over for just a second and then crawled back to safety. I don't like that sensation but these guys are completely unbothered by it. My hands are getting a bit damp right now just thinking about what I saw.

Dean's extreme sport adventures didn't end with being the best at climbing (he would eventually be beaten rather convincingly by some other guy who is featured in the doco) but Dean also delved into slack-lining, base jumping, and was kind of a pioneer in wing-suit design and evolution.

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Dean didn't invent the wingsuit, but he worked very closely with designers and is attributed with helping to evolve the design of the suit so that people could fly a lot further. He is, however, attributed with the invention of "FreeBase" which is a solo climbing tactic without ropes where the person either jumps or falls off the side of a mountain and then uses a parachute to prevent death. It's friggin crazy.

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He was the first person to ever dog a wingsuit flight with his dog on his back though and this was very cool and cute to see. Even though the dog seemed to really enjoy it and was wagging his tail like crazy once they got to the ground and in no way resisted being put into the rigging device, the internet Karens went apeshit over this and people attempted to cancel him because of it. Dean didn't care at all about this backlash and basically told everyone to go fuck themselves.

Should I watch it?

This is one of the most heartfelt "yes" comments that I have ever made on this or any other forum about something I have seen. You do not need to know anything about any of the sports involved to appreciate this series.

It was recommended to me by a friend and I started episode one thinking that it would lull me to sleep and I would switch it off at most after 1 hour. Instead I ended up staying up until the middle of the night and kind of screwed up my next day because of it.

Do not start this series thinking that you are only going to watch one episode because I think that most people are going to watch all 4 hours in a row the way that I did. This is an absolutely outstanding series and one of the best documentaries, series, or simply entertainment of any sort that I have ever seen.

Watch it!

_{the only legal way to watch this series is with a HBO Max or YouTube TV subscription}