Fans of the wildlife documentary genre will be well familiar by now with the BBC's epic Planet Earth -- to date, the most spectacular and expansive nature series ever made. Anyone watching Planet Earth's flying sharks,elephant-killing lions and birds of paradise in full display in all their HD splendor may well have wondered how they could possibly top such a feat. Perhaps they never will; but the BBC's latest nature series is a darn good start.
This time, rather than focusing on our planet's myriad weird and wonderful animal species (many of which are rapidly disappearing), the BBC has chosen one species in particular to investigate: humans. Human Planet, as it's called, is such a good idea for a series, I'm surprised no one else had done it previously. But, given that Planet Earth's budget was in the area of $25 million dollars, perhaps the BBC was/is the only organization capable of doing justice to such a big project.
The series begins with the episode "Oceans - Into the Blue," which features barnacle hunters in Spain, a "shark whisperer" in Papua New Guinea and Indonesians hunting sperm whales from traditional handmade boats. Seven more episodes follow, taking us to deserts, arctic tundras, tropical jungles and other such exciting places. Human Planet recently finished airing in the UK, but it will appear on Discovery starting in April and be released on DVD immediately after. Judging from the clip below it's going to be worth the wait.
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This time, rather than focusing on our planet's myriad weird and wonderful animal species (many of which are rapidly disappearing), the BBC has chosen one species in particular to investigate: humans. Human Planet, as it's called, is such a good idea for a series, I'm surprised no one else had done it previously. But, given that Planet Earth's budget was in the area of $25 million dollars, perhaps the BBC was/is the only organization capable of doing justice to such a big project.
The series begins with the episode "Oceans - Into the Blue," which features barnacle hunters in Spain, a "shark whisperer" in Papua New Guinea and Indonesians hunting sperm whales from traditional handmade boats. Seven more episodes follow, taking us to deserts, arctic tundras, tropical jungles and other such exciting places. Human Planet recently finished airing in the UK, but it will appear on Discovery starting in April and be released on DVD immediately after. Judging from the clip below it's going to be worth the wait.