So what does the SDMB community think about this new mini-series coming up on Sunday?
Personally, I try not to watch too much TV, but this is something I wouldn’t want to miss. I loved “Planet Earth”, but I don’t know how I feel about Oprah narrating this one.
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/life/
I can only hope it’s as awesome as ‘Planet Earth’ was.
I’ve seen the original BBC version, with David Attenborough instead of Oprah(!!!). It was great. If you liked Planet Earth, you’ll like this. More of the same, I’d say.
Wait they replaced David Attenborough with Oprah? That’s just blasphemy, do yourself a favour and order the DVD set from the UK - it’s only about £20.
Yeah. As much as I like Sigourney Weaver, her narration of Planet Earth was like listening to schoolmarm. I hate that some producer decided that Americans are scared or put off of British narration.
Will be very much like Planet Earth. More than likely edited together from unused footage from Planet Earth. I base that assertion on absolutely nothing.
The narrative is a bit more coherent, actually written by Attenborough this time, unlike Planet Earth.
Nope, not at all.
The dolphins trapping fish by making the silt bloom up into cylindrical “corrals” is utterly mind-blowing.
Also, Oprah. Wtf!
I didn’t mind Signourney’s voice last time. She did it slow enough it was sexy (even with the shark episodes)
Yeah, the only problem I have with it is the Oprah angle (or would it be a semicircle?)
I can hear it now…
"Everybody in the audience today… will get a brand…new…SALAMANDER!!!
Planet Earth like, blew my mind, man. Hopefully, this one will do the same.
Joe
I want Sir David Attenborough! I don’t understand why they replace him for the American versions of all these series - Planet Earth, Blue Planet, etc. It’s not like he’s unknown here. Good lord, they had a series of Geico commercials making fun of him! For Blue Planet, they used Pierce Brosnan, so it’s not as if they’re against using Brits on principle or something.
BBC America is running four or five hours of Life of Mammals during Sunday day (21 March 2010), and they DO have Attenborough. It’s a great series and I recommend it; I believe it starts at 3 PM EDT, but you may want to check your listings on that. Between that and the first two episodes of Life, it’s going to be a nature programming orgy!
So far it’s ok – a little disjointed (it doesn’t seem to have an episode theme like Planet Earth did) and there are way, way too many commercials, but the cinematography is certainly what we’ve come to expect.
Whoop – it turns out the first one was “Challenges Of Life” – which, in nature, is pretty much everything.
Just saw the first two episodes. Worth watching but I didn’t find it as impressive as Planet Earth. I wasn’t impressed by the Oprah narration.
Totally agreed. What the hell, it felt like there were a dozen commercial breaks in the second hour. Even fast forwarding through that many breaks was intrusively tedious.
I wasn’t blown away, mostly because of the lack of coherence. And I was a little put off by the self-aggrandizing of the production. “This is the ONLY FOOTAGE EVER SHOT” – how many times are you going to say that? And the behind the scenes bumpers at the end of both hours just added to that impression.
Watched the first 2 eps. VERY glad I DVRed it and was able to FF thru the ads. It was pretty cool, but I didn’t see it as all that much more than any number of nature shows.
Re: disjunct, thought it odd that at times they identified the location, and at others didn’t. In ep 1 they went to Madagascar for the chameleon, then went to the Venus Flytrap without saying that they were switching continents.
Speaking of the chameleon, we saw some of the same footage in eps 1 and 2. Not a good sign.
When I watch these, I always wonder how much is staged and how much cleverly edited. Sure seemed like some amazing cameras they are using - I’m thinking of that final shot, pan out from the baby ibex.
Disliked some of what impressed me as anthropomorphizing dialogue - “That’s one confused snake” comes to mind …
I’ll keep watching, but just cause I’m kinda a whore for nature shows and slo-mo film. My wife and daughter both fell asleep during ep 2.
Yesterday it ran for like 5 hours. Were those all new eps or were there any repeats?
Hmm. The more I hear, the gladder I am I stuck with the BBC version.
I’ve (temporarily, I hope) lost Discovery (along with every other channel that was on 107-# on Comcast in New Jersey), but stumbled across the second episode on Discovery Health, which was also showing the program (but only Parts #1 & 2 – next week, this show will be on Discovery only).
Good show, but on D Health, at least, its presentation was marred by the huge channel logo in the lower-right-hand corner of the screen. Really, really annoying, those things – especially for a program of this nature, no pun intended.
The first episode is an introduction to the series so it uses scenes from upcoming episodes. The subsequent episodes should have less overlap between them.
We were watching it live last night, and, about halfway through the first episode, my wife said, “Oh, yeah, this is why I try to watch these on the DVR.”
I call it “nature porn”. Really pretty visuals, not much in the way of information/plot. 
Agreed. Hated her narration, and her saying “wooter” for “water” makes the wife and me giggle.
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