Human Planet [Blu-ray]

Humans vs. nature, another fascinating BBC series
This review is based on the UK Blu-Ray release and, so far, there seems to be no reason to believe that the US version will be any different.

If you have seen the BBC's superb previous flagship series 'Life', then I can summarize this as being the human version of that series by way of Planet Earth: A collection of exotic and sensational footage of humans, some living in various cities or villages around the world, but most of them at the fringes of civilization, all having to meet nature's challenges using ingenuity, daring and downright unusual or dangerous solutions. This includes dealings with environmental dangers, human extents to find or hunt for food in the most extreme environments, various extreme forms of human dwellings and adaptations, and the many types of relationships between humans and animals ranging from exploitative, to practical survival tactics or pest-control, the religious, the conservationist, etc. The structure of these 8 episodes is modeled after...

The Human Planet - The most remarkable species of all.
It was Mark Twain who is usually credited with originating the maxim that "the only two certainties in life are death and taxes" He was wrong since Twain never had the benefit of the wonders of the BBC Natural History Unit. Their certainty appears to be the complete inability to construct a bad series and in achieving the consistant feat of producing the most wonderful and lavish programmes which throughly inform and educate at the same time. This latest series is a variant on a theme since the "Human Planet" looks at us as a species particularly our behaviour in subsistence and fundamentally dangerous environments (with the exception of the last episode "Cities") where humans are most challenged by nature, eco systems or competition with other mammals and animals.

The Human Planet is a series packed with what television producers describe as the "gawp factor". It is beautifully filmed and the intriguing "Behind the Lens" segments to every programme show the scale of the...

The DVDs are much more than you saw on TV
After watching it on Discovery, there are three reasons I bought this DVD:

1. It is surprisingly raw for American TV. Normally Americans prefer to watch cute people eat dirty things, rather than watching dirty people eat cute things. Audiences complain when people living in harsh conditions kill whales to survive. Not everyone wants to be confronted with the messier, complicated reality when they can find solace in a simplified television narrative. That this show has the temerity and honesty to require a parental a advisory for "disturbing content and indigenous nudity" instantly wins a place in my heart.

2. This series presents what I believe is our best way forward with the environment. It shows an alternative to our conquer or be conquered conflict with nature. The idea that man can live as part of nature rather than as either as it's master or at its mercy is ultimately the key to our own survival. The key is not to absent ourselves from nature, but...

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