As a screenwriter, David E. Kelley is used to injecting social commentary into his material — not unlike the way the ancient Greeks entered the city of Troy. But when the creator of shows like The Practice, Big Little Lies and Ally McBeal made his foray into documentary filmmaking – with the ocean sustainability-themed Hope in the Water — the Trojan Horse method of educating was no longer applicable. “If you would leave me to my devices, I probably would’ve had a floating dead body, to talk about the biosecurity risk of people being beheaded in our oceans, but it was not going to be this kind of series,” jokes the prolific producer. “I didn’t proffer that idea. They didn’t ask for it – maybe because they were worried I might suggest something like that.”

Hope in the Water, a three-part series from PBS, takes a far less salacious approach to...