Entertainment
Spielberg’s Netflix Sleeper Hit Has the Perfect Replacement 15-Episode Series on Apple TV
Did Steven Spielberg just make a successful return to the world of dinosaurs? You bet Jurass-ic he did, and his collaboration with Netflix, the documentary miniseries The Dinosaurs, immediately hit #1 on global streaming charts upon its release of all four episodes on March 6. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, The Dinosaurs winningly charts the rise and eventual fall of the great creatures, a brutal and unforgiving CGI journey with an attention to detail that puts the docuseries above anything else like it. If you’re looking for another incredible documentary series with a similar focus on dinosaurs, then Apple TV’s Prehistoric Planet is the perfect replacement.
What Is Apple TV’s ‘Prehistoric Planet’ About?
Prehistoric Planet, simply defined, is a 15-episode documentary series about dinosaurs told across three seasons, from the Late Cretaceous period 66 million years ago through to the Ice Age. But the way the series approaches dinosaurs is unlike anything else, simply by being exactly like something else: a nature documentary. It remembers that dinosaurs were animals first, monsters second, stepping away from the conventional eat-or-be-eaten that most dinosaur fare falls into, including The Dinosaurs. As such, it creates a relatability that others lack: no one understands being eaten by a T. Rex (except lawyers), but the frantic search for your baby, as befalls a Triceratops mother in Season 1’s “Forests,” connects.
Prehistoric Planet began over a decade ago with BBC Studios creative director Michael Gunton, who came up with the idea of doing a natural history documentary like the BBC’s Planet Earth, only with dinosaurs: how did they live, migrate, mate, raise their offspring, and so on. Great idea, wrong time. The technology available then simply wasn’t up to the project’s requirements, and with no actual dinosaurs to film, that was problematic. Enter Jon Favreau, who met with Gunton and showrunner Tim Walker in London years later. As Walker recalls: “Jon came in and sat down; we got chatting and he flipped his iPad open and said, ‘Let me show you some of the stuff we’ve been doing.’ It was The Lion King.“
Just like that, the company behind the stunningly life-like effects behind The Lion King, MPC, were tasked with creating the dinosaurs, two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer was brought in to compose the score, and nature documentary veteran Sir Richard Attenborough came in to narrate, replaced by Tom Hiddleston for the third season’s focus on the Ice Age. But what truly puts Prehistoric Planet “above anything else like it” are top-to-bottom commitments, both to the latest in palaeontological research, under the watchful eye of chief scientific consultant and palaeozoologist Darren Naish, and to its focus on dinosaur life, refreshingly keeping away from the catastrophic event that ended it.
Apple TV’s ‘Prehistoric Planet’ Is Proof the Streamer Thrives When It Leans Into Science
It could be argued that Prehistoric Planet is as good as it is, in large part, thanks to being on Apple TV in the first place. Apple TV thrives when it leans into science, creating a host of exceptional documentaries that range from biographies and politics to nature and society. The documentaries matter, and the high-end production quality – advanced CGI, customized cameras, cinematic-level scores and editing – is testament to it. Seasoned vets like Attenborough, Paul Rudd, and Hugh Bonneville exude an air of authenticity with their narrations. Not to mention, Apple TV is the best streamer for sci-fi, with exceptional series like Severance, Pluribus, Foundation, and For All Mankind.
The Best Jurassic Movie in a Decade Is Dominating 2 Streaming Services
A sequel is reportedly in early development at Universal.
Plus, as with Prehistoric Planet, there’s a commitment to accuracy — buoyed by collaborations with researchers and scientists — that is laudable. It even extends to other projects like Extrapolations, which earned plaudits from scientists for its precise depiction of global warming. Those elements alone aren’t enough to separate the Apple TV documentary from its kin, but its focus on unique, rarely covered moments in nature does. Take The Secret Lives of Animals, for one, which shows navigation signposts made by a wood mouse, or a frog that turns invisible: it’s easy to build a documentary narrative around the predator-prey dynamic, but quite another to make the everyday lives of animals utterly fascinating.
Prehistoric Planet fits right in to that Apple TV formula, and while the everyday actions of dinosaurs that it showcases are speculative, it rings true. The series also goes beyond the fan-favorite dinosaurs to include the likes of Kaikaifilu, a seagoing lizard with flippers and a tail fin, and Qianzhousaurus, an Asian-tyrannosaur whose long snout earned it the moniker “Pinocchio Rex.” Prehistoric Planet takes the route of its Apple TV relations, while The Dinosaurs has the markings of Spielberg’s cinematic touch. The two complement each other in conventional and unconventional ways, making Prehistoric Planet the perfect replacement for The Dinosaurs, and vice-versa.
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