Don’t forget this weekend to tune in to Discovery Channel‘s great new miniseries Nature’s Most Amazing Events. Discovery co-produced the series with the BBC, their production partners on Planet Earth. That series set the bar for natural history programming so high that I wasn’t sure if this new series would be quite as awe-inspiring. While Planet Earth remains on a level of its own, this series comes very close to it and is still the best nature show — or any show period — you’re likely to see this year. And it is unique in that each of its six episodes focuses on one particular event, in one location, in the natural world, where Planet Earth, as its title indicates, globe-trotted all across the world in each episode. The focus on individual events here lends a bit of intimacy to the epic landscapes as we get to meet particular creatures and how they respond to events ranging from floods and ice melts to huge salmon runs and migrations.
If you saw the astonishing natural history series Planet Earth a few years back, you’ll be happy to know that the BBC and Discovery Channel have teamed on a similar new series, premiering in May.
Nature’s Most Amazing Events is a six-part high-definition series filmed over the course of two years that chronicles breathtaking natural events that take place across our planet, and which are triggered by seasonal and climate changes — from the flooding of the Okavango Delta in Africa to the great summer melt of ice in the Arctic.
In addition to following Planet Earth‘s example of showcasing remote areas of the world, this program also uses technical innovations as its predecessor did, including time-lapse and macro photography, and high-definition stablized camera mounts often used for the first time in a natural history film.
Arctic fox cubs in Norway
Again, filmmakers patiently waited to be in the right place at the right time to capture animal footage such as tiny grizzly bear cubs emerging from their den in snow-covered mountains, baby elephants struggling to survive against drought and lion attack in Africa, humpback whales hunting as a team, the world’s largest concentration of dolphins and sharks gathering off the coast of South Africa and polar bear families navigating their way on ever-thinning ice.
Nature and documentary lovers, be sure to check out the series May 29-31 on Discovery Channel.
Here are some selected episode clips from the series as it was shown in England, under the title Nature’s Great Events. Please note that, like Planet Earth, the series is being reformatted for American viewing, and might have a different narrator than Sir David Attenborough (unfortunately).
d be quite as awe-inspiring. While Planet Earth remains on a level of its own, this series comes very close to it and is still the best nature show — or any show period — you’re likely to see this year. And it is unique in that each of its six episodes focuses on one particular event, in one location, in the natural world, where Planet Earth, as its title indicates, globe-trotted all across the world in each episode. The focus on individual events here lends a bit of intimacy to the epic landscapes as we get to meet particular creatures and how they respond to events ranging from floods and ice melts to huge salmon runs and migrations.
