Life On Our Planet- New Paleo Docuseries coming to Netflix

[Mellow Stego]

Just started to watch this. Enjoying it so far.

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Came across this behind the scenes making of the Life On Our Planet CGI T-Rex model on YouTube.

[Carnoking]

Interesting. Always glad to see behind the scenes but it sounds like this team was attempting to walk a line between what they thought was "cool" and what's considered accurate to the detriment of the science side of things. I'm yet to watch any episodes as I've been traveling but this design approach I'm hearing sounds like the reason so much of what I've seen has looked so off.

[Bread]

Video shows to be private for me at least.

I wonder if it is due to the backlash. I've noticed that trailers now, clips, and reviews in general all have comments regarding issues with this documentary.

I too finished it over the week, and I can only say that my disappointment is immeasurable and my week is ruined.

Seriously though, I can rewatch the trailers and have such a joy with them, but when it comes down to the final documentary it is lackluster.

[Georassic]

I finished it last night. Very meh. Like episodes of Nature with some prehistory thrown in.

[edu]

The series is not bad at all, but it pales in comparison to Prehistoric Planet. Both visually, scientifically and as a narrative. You need a Darren Naish attached to the project to get cutting edge science and interesting behaviours. His extensive extant zoological knowledge shows in PP. And then, you have to consider that the nature unit of the BBC is the best in filming nature. LIOP sceneries look good, but somehow artificial.
(I am a huge Darren Naish fan, btw)

[CARN0TAURUS]

I really enjoyed this show.  for someone like me that didn't study paleontology in college, this series did a good job of educating me on the "older" epocs in earth's history that I didn't know anything about...how accurate is that information in regards to the 3.5 plus billion year history before the dinosaurs even existed?   it blew my mind that each extinction left behind new bloodlines from previous epocs that were hardy or lucky enough to survive the different extinctions...my wife and I our jaws about hit the floor when in that episode where Morgan Freeman said it rained for a million years straight!  I get some folks being upset from the dinosaur perspective but I don't think the show is intended to be just about dinosaurs.

I have new found respect for those animals that have been around for so long it, way way before even the dinosaurs...it's also crazy to think that such a large part of earth's overall history didn't feature complex life forms that we take for granted today...I totally understand why some folks were dissapointed but for someone like me that lacked knowledge about the earths overall history and the causes of the different extinctions, etc...it was fascinating to me!

I look forward to hearing from you guys about the accuracy of those aspects of the show.  I don't really care that some models were shown with too many teeth or things of that sort because I think the goal of the show was to show how incredibly precious life is and how incredibly long it took for us to get to where we are today...it also pays tribute to the species that somehow "lucked out" or found ways to survive previous extinctions...I found the show interesting and thought provoking, it made me wonder if we'll be able to find a way to survive like other animals have?   

[HD-man]

Always glad to see behind the scenes but it sounds like this team was attempting to walk a line between what they thought was "cool" and what's considered accurate to the detriment of the science side of things.

Yeah, trying to be cool usually backfires. Reminds me of Animalogic's Velociraptor video: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=11020.0

Video shows to be private for me at least.

Me too!

The series is not bad at all, but it pales in comparison to Prehistoric Planet. Both visually, scientifically and as a narrative. You need a Darren Naish attached to the project to get cutting edge science and interesting behaviours. His extensive extant zoological knowledge shows in PP. And then, you have to consider that the nature unit of the BBC is the best in filming nature. LIOP sceneries look good, but somehow artificial.

Agreed.

(I am a huge Darren Naish fan, btw)

Me too! It helps that his books are the best of their kinds More specifically, Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved is the best adult introduction to the whole story of dinos (My review: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=2210.msg183625#msg183625 ) & Dinopedia: A Brief Compendium of Dinosaur Lore is the best adult guide to dinos & their cultural impact since the 1970s (My review: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=2210.msg327118#msg327118 ).

[Halichoeres]

As somebody who's been into paleontology for decades and went to a lot of schooling for a related field, I appreciate that take, @CARN0TAURUS. In some ways this show came out a little messy. Still, I'm glad that it exists, if for no other reason than it will make lots of people aware of organisms, environments, and time periods that they weren't familiar with before. In turn, that might encourage media companies to invest in more and better documentaries along these lines.

[Carnoking]

Three episodes in. Gotta say, I'm enjoying it more than I anticipated.
Yes, episode one felt a bit convoluted but it seems that it was there more for table setting to establish the key themes and ideas the following episodes would explore further.
It is fun to see how these rising "dynasties" (take a drink every time you hear that word) compare to their contemporary counterparts throughout the episode even if that does somewhat distract from the core idea of exploring the journey of life.
It's also humbling to learn more about the various mass extinctions that nearly brought an end to the journey and how brief our own existence has been in the grand scheme of Earth's long and storied history.
As far as the visuals go, there's some lovely nature footage but the CGI at its best is still beneath Prehistoric Planet's worst. Would love to see the type of time and budget allocated to that show given to to this as it would be amazing to see some of these animals rendered as realistically.
All in all, I find the sheer scope of this series commendable and I look forward to finishing it.

[Crackington]

Just watched the fourth episode and am also enjoying the series, after a rather poor start (I found Part 1 incoherent, uneven and rather boring in places).

I quite like the present day footage used to link to the past. The Atacama Desert sequence with the lizards and the brine flies was really well done and completely new to me.

Morgan Freeman's narration is good but I find the scripts very uneven. There's a lot of complex information to pack into a documentary, and distilling this down to make it understandable to wide audiences is difficult. They haven't quite managed to hit consistency on this in my view (yes, the BBC usually do this better).

They explained and visualised the Permian extinction very well and got across the enormity of the loss (with a very good Lystrosaurus as a heroic/tragic player).

However, I  found the Triassic extinction less well done. Unless I missed it, the causes of the extinction weren't explained (beginnings of the Pangaea break-up) and instead we just had huge floods from nowhere. With  Morgan Freeman's narration I did a double-take to make sure I wasn't watching a certain film!

Anyway, it's a good series overall and great to see some rarely featured animals given a spot in the limelight.

[dragon53]

[BlueKrono]

Came across this behind the scenes making of the Life On Our Planet CGI T-Rex model on YouTube.

Apparently this video is private. I can't see it.

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Yeah, there wasn't any problem when I just posted it but unfortunately it's marked as private now.

[Prehistory Resurrection]

[Prehistory Resurrection]

[Carnoking]

Finished it the other night, gotta say I am surprised with how much I enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong, it was a mixed bag for sure but there was a certain gravitas to it that I was not expecting.





Oh, and the Lystrosaurs looked great!

[bmathison1972]

I saw the first episode this weekend. I plan on finishing, but there just seems something 'off' about it. More episodes will say for sure. Tim's comment above about being 'messy' fits what I am feeling, but it's still neat to see these recreations of interesting prehistoric critters.

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

I saw the first episode this weekend. I plan on finishing, but there just seems something 'off' about it. More episodes will say for sure. Tim's comment above about being 'messy' fits what I am feeling, but it's still neat to see these recreations of interesting prehistoric critters.

I will say the first episode is supposedly just a recap of the rest of the series, though I can't say for sure as I skipped it for that reason.

[HD-man]

Same video? Just making sure.