"The Life of Mammals" (2002) TV series 2002-2003

User Rating:

9.6/10   

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

20 November 2002 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

David Attenborough's comprehensive study of how a remarkable group of animals evolved - a group that includes ourselves.

Plot Keywords:

Wildlife | Nature | Mammal

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

David Attenborough

...

Himself - Presenter (10 episodes, 2002-2003)

Also Known As:

"David Attenborough's The Life of Mammals" (Australia)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:G

Company:

BBC Natural History

Quotes:

Himself - Host: Three and a half million years separate the individual who left these footprints in the sands of Africa from the one who left them on the moon. A mere blink in the eye of evolution. Using his burgeoning intelligence, this most successful of mammals has exploited the environment to produce food for an ever-increasing population...

Movie Connections:

Follows "The Living Planet" (1984)

worth watching, but ,for many may not hold the same replay value as other "Life of" series

As with all BBC "Life" series of documentaries the life of mammals contains, and in spades, amazing never seen before footage, an appropriately matching musical score, high production values and the calming, fascinating narrative,and infectious enthusiasm of sir David Attenborough .

All these elements mean some of the best TV has to offer and a benchmark for documentary. Some of the highlights of the series are the never seen before footage of the platypus nest. The Kangaroos giving birth and the elephants salt mining. Yet life of mammals scores, in my book, less than all other Life series.

so what went wrong here? i am afraid old Davy dropped the ball with this one; he has remained respectably fairly neutral on the subject of evolution in his past series, he mentions the facts, why and how animals, plants..etc are behaving, and leaves it up to the audience ,to conclude for themselves ,if its all the result of evolution or intelligent design .

This time around ,he threw the rules and long standing tradition of BBC aside and instead decided to keep regurgitating the still much debated theory of evolution through out each and every single episode in this 10 parts series as if it is a universally agreed upon fact ! And then ends the series with an hour long episode citing the similarities between apes and humans and regurgitates that human's were apes again and again as if it's a universally agreed upon fact . So much, that my uncle, a long time fan of David's work, was rolling his eyes many times during the last 2 episodes.much of the footage in last two episodes highlighting monkeys social nature and behavior is interesting,but clearly the narration was not objective.Rather than wasting time trying to shove evolution down peoples throats, precious time could've been spent showing more rare species and fascinating FACTs about mammals.

This review is not intended to spark a never ending evolution / creation debate, but with all due respect to the BBC and sir David, if you want to make the case of evolution, then make another dedicated show to debate the theory and represent other points of view in a neutral and objective way, the BBC way, or at least the way it used to be. That being said I still feel this series is worth watching, but ,for many may not hold the same replay value as other "Life" series .