Who better to draft in to voice a documentary series about life on Earth than God himself – in his earthly form – Morgan Freeman?
This series shares a production company with another Netflix show, Our Planet, but it has the ultimate marquee name out front, that of Steven Spielberg. And, as that would suggest, it’s visually spectacular. We live in an age when CGI dinosaurs have become a little ho-hum, but the trailers suggest that the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic have set a new standard for bringing prehistoric creatures – even the single-celled ones – to life.
The first episode, “The Rules of Life”, looks at the principles with which life began a billion years ago and which still apply now. The second, “The First Frontier”, captures the story of the oceans, which witnessed the beginning of life and its survival through two mass extinctions.
“Invaders of the Land” follows the greening of the ancient land masses – the producers promise that we’ve never seen lichen like this before – and parts four, five and six depict the age of the dinosaurs, from their birth out of one mass extinction to their demise in another.
The final two parts cover the time of the mammals – concluding with an inescapable warning about human-induced climate change. “We knew from early on that we wanted to challenge the audience at the end of the final chapter,” says series producer Dan Tapster.
“Having shown throughout the series the devastation of mass extinction events, we want the audience to realise that the same is happening right now.”
Life on Our Planet is available on Netflix, from October 25
