If you’re missing this, you don’t know what you’re missing. Going in, I figured I’d probably just see a few more lions eating gazelles, and some crocodiles eating wildebeests in high def, but this show has been really amazing. Every week there’s something that just makes my jaw hang open.
Last night was about the jungles and they showed an ant who ate a bad mushroom. As he went crazy, a group of other ants carried his crazy ass up a tree and left him there to die. Why? Because a god damn mushroom grew out of his head and had the potential to affect the entire colony (the coincidence of Sigourney Weaver narrating the emergence of the alien life form was not lost on me).
Not to mention, they had some unbelievable time-lapse photography of slime molds, and one wacky-ass display from a Bird of Paradise.
They showed a posse of chimps attack another group of chimps. . .eventually eating one.
Really great show. If you’re missing it, tune in now, though I’m sure it will make a great DVD set.
Well, there were a whole lot of wacky-ass displays from Birds of Paradise, and that’s what (fortunately) caught me in mid-channel surf (me: “the hell is this? birds doing flamenco dances?”).
But yes those really were good shows. I was annoyed when I realized that I’d missed other episodes. I’ll probably get the DVD set myself when it comes out.
The one about the lions bringing down the full grown elephant had me on the edge of my seat.
The midge flies that swarmed so much it looks like smoke over the lake was amazing. The parastic spores was creepy. Evolution just knocks me on my butt every time. (850 different species of siklids? A flying lemur that they don’t know what its closest relative is? It’s so humid in the jungle half the damn Amazon gets its rain from the trees!!! Squeeeeeeeeeee!)
I can do without the subtle political commentary at the end “All will be well…except for the biggest ape of all…” Yeah, I get it. Humans suck. Quit trying to lay a guilt trip on me. Last I checked, I was not responsible for the deforestation in Borneo. :rolleyes:
But still, the footage they shoot is breathtaking. Next week is caves and forests…I can’t wait!
No, the US ones have Ripley as hostess. She’s not bad (not too emotive or distracting), but no great shakes either (and some of the lines are pretty cornball, which only a British accent could probably pull off).
I’ve only seen the first 2, but we’ve been recording all of them and hope to catch a few more soon.
The bird of paradise and the ant were the highlights of my weekend - absolutely stunning. I wish I had been stoned or something - I’d have had a life-changing experience
For those of you who have Comcast, a bunch of episodes are On Demand.
I rarely watch nature programs, but this series rocks! Although I wish we could have David Attenborough narrating too. Somehow these type of shows always seem better with British accents.
My favorite part is still the slo-mo great white shark flying a good 10 feet out of the water to catch a seal. I can watch that all day. I hope the cameraman who spent a few months filming a particular seal just to catch that shot got a bonus.
When it was shown on the BBC there was a fifteen minute or so “making of” after each episode. The cameraman in question had the patience of a saint! The boat went out every day to see where the seals were and basically hung around until the sharks started feeding. The camera was so high speed that he only had a couple of seconds worth of “film” available to him before the data storage was full and he’d have to start over again. The fact that he caught such a remarkable piece of footage while bobbing about on a boat pointing his camera at nothing in particular is amazing! I’d imagine all these extra bits will be on the DVD.
I’ve only seen one episode but I will be recording the future episodes.
The one I saw was about rivers from the mountains to the sea. I loved the part about the river otters in Inda. And when the river croc came up to the otters and the otters ganged up on the croc and started harrassing him I yelled at the TV (one of the benefits of living alone) “Yeah, yeah, kick his ass.” It was awesome.
Also it was really cute when they showed the salmon swimming upstream and the bears trying to catch them. Especially when they showed the two cubs clumisly jumping around trying to catch one.
Just chiming in to say I’ve found these fascinating as well, and to let you all know the original BBC series (with David Attenborough’s narration) is available next week (24 April 2007) in DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray. Wouldn’t want anyone to miss out.
We missed a few episodes, but we’re really enjoying the ones we caught. It’s just amazing, this world we live in! The snow leopards were stunning, and I loved the birds of paradise! So funny.
I’m not loving Sigourney Weaver’s narration, though – I’m especially tired of her saying “wooder” instead of “water.” It’s driving me nuts!
David Attenborough is Nature Doco’s for me. Ever since I first got interested in them back in the early 80’s, with Life on Earth & The Living Planet. Give me Attenborough or I’m not watching. If I’m channel surfing and hear his voice, I’ll stop in for a look.
“the hell is this? birds doing flamenco dances?”).
