Planet Earth
Cast & Key People
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Our Review
The nature documentary as action movie, shot over five years by the BBC Natural History Unit with budgets that had previously only been spent on planets in sci fi. David Attenborough narrates like a man reading you into bed, which is the most misleading thing about it: every episode is structured like a heist, a war film, or a romance with claws.
Snow leopards at dusk in Mongolia, Komodo dragons ambushing water buffalo, the Borneo paradisaica flying sequence, sperm whales sleeping vertical in the deep: these are not cute nature clips, they are sequences with editorial pacing that most scripted TV cannot match. The score does the rest. If you only watch one nature series in your life, watch this one first, then the sequels have nowhere to go but sideways.
All six hours earn the patience.
Our score: 9.5/10.
