Review of Our Planet (2019)

Moving picture, 7 hours

Seen in 2019.

Eight biomes, ending in Pripyat, Ukraine, where forest is reclaiming the city abandoned in 1986.

Like Planet Earth (2006) but with a conservationist agenda that is relatively strong for David Attenborough. The leopard sex scene is amazing in its brevity, but the most beautiful shot is of a kingfisher catching lunch. The conservationist agenda is neither subtle nor intrusive: It takes the form of mentioning which species are threatened—with just a tiny number of statistics—and describing their ecological relationships with a little more detail than usual. This should be standard. Each episode ends with a reference to a website for learning more and contributing to the cause, but in every other respect, this is just as lovely and diverting as other recent productions with Attenborough.

References here: Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (2018), Seven Worlds, One Planet (2019).

moving picture non-fiction nature series