Series Thoughts: Prehistoric Planet (Season 1)

• Released: May 23, 2022
  
• Amount of seasons: 1
• Seasons watched: 1
• Rating: 3.5/5

Synopsis

A documentary about dinosaurs in various biomes using modern research findings and realistic-looking animation.

My Thoughts

What can I say that hasn't been said already? This overall really is a beautiful dinosaur documentary series. It's great to see that we finally get one with very updated facts around each species, as a lot of other dinosaur documentaries have dated with time as modern research found new truths about each species.

Keep in mind, I'm by no means a dinosaur expert (I left that phase when I was four and my hyperfixation switched to horses), but all of the facts that are presented here do seem probable, and since it has so much research behind it I'm just going to assume it's the closest to the truth regarding these animals we can currently get. I don't think we'll ever figure out the exact ways of how they looked and lived unless we go back in time and see for ourselves, which doesn't seem like something we'll be able to do in the next couple of decades.

The documentary is split up into different episodes, each surrounding a certain biome, where we follow a select few dinosaurs as they live in said biome. Most of the species get one segment, but there's a few who have more than one, such as the T-rex. Honestly, my favorite dinosaur from the entire series is probably the Mononykus, it just looked so cute. 

The visuals also look great, with little to no "shrink-wrapping" (what is commonly seen in portrayals of dinosaurs, basically wrapping the skin directly around the skeleton without any consideration for body fat and musculature, resulting in very scrawny-looking creatures), awesome textures, great interactions with the environment, etc. I also like how they gave most dinosaurs of each species various textures, so you could really distinguish a few rather than them all having the exact same skin markings and colors. 

I must say that it didn't completely hold my attention. It's not a boring documentary, not in the slightest, but I'm just really not all that interested in dinosaurs anymore. They're cool and I like looking at how pretty their CGI was, but after several hours of this I got kind of tired of it at moments, making me take a break. 

Overall, this is still a great documentary series. If you love dinosaurs, absolutely check it out. And if you don't, maybe consider giving at least one episode a watch as well. I'm not really into dinosaurs anymore and still enjoyed it quite a lot, so you might as well.