Life On Our Planet- New Paleo Docuseries coming to Netflix

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Yes, it's the same video. It got re-uploaded fortunately after.

[Fembrogon]

I do appreciate those behind-the-scenes videos; it's always fascinating to me to peek behind the curtain at the creative process.
It's interesting to see how much the crew enjoyed this project, as well as how they tried to keep the creature designs accurate while leaving a little room for creative license where possible.

[Gwangi]

I finally got around to finishing this. It took me awhile to start it and even longer to finish it because honestly, it was a bit of a slog. As many of us predicted, the majority of the footage was of extant animals. That's fine, I've watched nature documentaries my entire life and I love them, but I do feel like the trailer was a bit misleading. I watched Life On Our Planet for the prehistoric stuff and couldn't help but be disappointed that it really wasn't there. Netflix did this with another documentary called Alien Worlds. It promised a speculative look at life on other planets but they did a sort of bait and switch like they did here. The result was very little time spent on the alien worlds.

Seeing documentary footage of extant animals is all well and good...if you have something new to offer. As a veteran nature documentary viewer I've seen all the best, so a lot of the information and footage presented here seemed basic and repetitive. I did see some new stuff and appreciated the fantastic camera work, but I've seen most of what was presented many times over. That's just me though, for most people this might all be new stuff, and good for them. As a primer on prehistory that links past and present the documentary did it's job well.

I guess it's a good thing that the prehistoric stuff was used sparingly because a lot of it just didn't look good. It only really looked good when animals were standing around or barely moving. Action scenes were particularly bad. The CGI in the Cretaceous extinction event looked like it was a decade old. Some creature designs were better than others. I liked the Inostrancevia and Lystrosaurus, the fishes, and the Glyptodon for example. The dinosaurs were actually the worst and I hated most of the designs. I audibly laughed when Anchiornis were just gliding around the cliffs.

There was also some questionable science and scenarios but that's to be expected I guess. Overall, I was disappointed in it but I also see the value in it for folks less well versed on the topic and those that don't watch documentaries on the regular. I don't see myself ever watching it again, unlike PP which I've re-watched numerous times. If I were to give it a letter grade I would probably give it a C+. I still think there's a need and market for a really good walk through deep time and evolution documentary but this is probably as close as we'll get for awhile.

[Dynomikegojira]

Honestly as much as I do watch traditional nature documentaries I stand say they should've used the extant animal footage for Our Planet or something we get plenty of modern animals docs all the time every year

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

I suppose I didn't have much to say that hasn't already been said elsewhere, but I'll link to my own review here anyway in case anyone is interested.

Dino Dad Reviews: Life on Our Planet

[Gwangi]

I suppose I didn't have much to say that hasn't already been said elsewhere, but I'll link to my own review here anyway in case anyone is interested.

Dino Dad Reviews: Life on Our Planet

Good review, you nailed it and I see nothing to disagree with. The extant animal stuff felt like padding to me too. In some sequences they even used extant animals to represent prehistoric ones and I cannot abide that.

When I originally saw the trailer I thought each episode would deal with a different period in time and that maybe the last episode would be modern animals. That would have been acceptable and they still could have tied modern lineages to their prehistoric counterparts.

I have to assume that virtually everyone that saw the documentary had to have felt at least some disappointment over how little prehistoric content there actually was, even casual viewers.

[Takama]

I watched the very first episode a while ago.   And for a Paleo-Documetery, this was the most Boreing one I ever seen.

 

[Libraraptor]

Watched my first five episodes today, since my daughter had convinced me Netflix could be fun.
The documentary is okay, even entertaining at times, but stunned me far too little and thus honestly is nothing to write home about. Not even close to Prehistoric Planet. Do not want to sound arrogant, but without knowing anything of the text, I could join in saying it.
There was not the slightest surprise in it.
 

[stargatedalek]

I would even go so far as to say the stuff they got wrong or misrepresented did not surprise me, because it was so tropey and obvious that they would get it wrong.

[andrewsaurus rex]

i had an opportunity to watch the first couple of episodes of this recently and was disappointed. Several obvious (to me) scientific errors and i am far from an expert....those better informed than i no doubt saw many others, weak special effects and disjointed story telling.  I expected better.

I assume Apple TV's Prehistoric Planet is much better?

[stargatedalek]

i had an opportunity to watch the first couple of episodes of this recently and was disappointed. Several obvious (to me) scientific errors and i am far from an expert....those better informed than i no doubt saw many others, weak special effects and disjointed story telling.  I expected better.

I assume Apple TV's Prehistoric Planet is much better?

Prehistoric Planet is not perfect, it has some pacing issues and a lot of similar creatures use exactly the same models (not even new textures) which can be a little distracting. But it is absolute leagues better than this drivel.

[Hynerpeton]

I think I watched this and enjoyed it. May give it a second go. 

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

i had an opportunity to watch the first couple of episodes of this recently and was disappointed. Several obvious (to me) scientific errors and i am far from an expert....those better informed than i no doubt saw many others, weak special effects and disjointed story telling.  I expected better.

I assume Apple TV's Prehistoric Planet is much better?

Absolutely, miles better! If you haven't already I highly reccomend seeing it! You can get a free trial of Appletv+ if you feel like binging it.

[suspsy]

I've been watching the show off and on, and while I enjoy the prehistoric bits, I don't care for the constant flash forwards to the present. I get what they're going for and really, it's good to show how evolution transcends time, but I'd still have preferred just straight up prehistory.

[Hynerpeton]

I've been watching the show off and on, and while I enjoy the prehistoric bits, I don't care for the constant flash forwards to the present. I get what they're going for and really, it's good to show how evolution transcends time, but I'd still have preferred just straight up prehistory.

Yeah I didn't care for that either. Made me confused.

[Halichoeres]

I tried, but I couldn't even make it through two episodes.

[Dynomikegojira]

Well guys looks like we got a 4 part dinosaur focused sequel series coming next from Life On Our Planet. I want to say I'm excited the the dino portions of the series were easily my least favorite but who knows maybe they'll actually improve.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/deadline.com/2024/05/life-on-our-planet-next-iteration-netflix-documentary-series-narrator-morgan-freeman-1235943078/amp/

[Carnoking]

Yes, I would be lying if I said I was optimistic for more but at this point in my life, I won't turn my nose up at any big budget paleo media.
Here's hoping that only having four dino-centric episodes will allow them to put more resources towards better representing these animals with better models and improved visuals.
If anything, at least it will feel more focused.

[suspsy]

While I've made my criticisms of LooP clear, I think it's great that this is now happening. I'm keen to see what these new episodes will be like!

[Libraraptor]

Since I have Netflix now, I won't avoid it. Hopefully it won't be as boring as most other episodes.