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Am a big fan of documentaries (whether feature length films or series), especially nature documentaries. Of which David Attenborough is pretty much imcomporable in, always was and still is. That is not to say that everything else nature documentary-else is inferior, there are some fantastic documentaries that he had nothing to do with and stand brilliantly in their own right. Despite the very mixed reviews, my love for the genre made me want to see 'Serengeti'.
'Serengeti' has its fair share of great things and is in quite a lot of ways beautiful. It is gorgeously filmed. It overall looks spectacular. Actually liked the human approach to the portrayal of the animals, and found many of them and wide range of emotions (yes they absolutely do have emotions, how can anybody say otherwise) relatable. There are some fantastic scenes, namely in the last two episodes. 'Serengeti' is also a bit of an odd one. Really do have to agree with those heavily criticising the music and narration, which drag the series down quite badly and they are never really addressed. Also found it rather too safe and too younger audience-oriented.
It is a series that starts off rocky, with two watchable but rather average episodes that epitomise what is good and bad about 'Serengeti'. From then on it marginally improves, then once again dips and then it gets much better in the last two episodes. "Exodus" being for me by far the best episode of 'Serengeti'.
Will start with the good things of 'Serengeti'. Have very little to complain about with the production values. The filming is gorgeous and to me it wasn't overly-bright or garish. "Conflict" makes spectacular use of the sunlight, and "Destiny" has the enchanting sight of a leopard leaping down from a tree. The scenery really takes the breath away, suitably varied and suitably unforgiving when needed. The animals look great and as said it is very easy to relate to them, especially the younger ones, really did care for what happened to them. Will never forget the forlorn expressions of the cubs when they lose their mother in "Rebirth".
Furthermore, there are some engaging conflicts, the adversity that the lionnesses and elephants face in "Destiny", the lion and leopard sequence in "Invasion" (one of the series' highlights) and that of the zebra foal and crocodile stand out. As well as some cute ones, like the amusing but not dumbed down porcupine scene in "Exodus". As said, there are a fair share of fantastic scenes scattered throughout. Not just the already mentioned ones, but scenes like the cubs being taught to hunt in "Rebirth" but two of the series' best moments come from "Exodus", the stuck in the mud sequence and the bush fire scene which are the only properly uncompromising sequences.
Sadly, 'Serengeti' has some significant drawbacks that make it a quite strange series. The two biggest problems being the music and narration, two big problems enough to almost completely spoil the series. The music is far too loud and used too much, very over-dramatic and heavy-handed, like it was trying to imitate contemporary Disney and never fits with what is going on. The narration is flawed in both writing and delivery. Some of the lines in "Destiny" and "Conflict" particularly made me cringe, lines from fortune cookies are better written and far less hokey, it can be very preachy (a problem in "Misfortune" too) and nothing really illuminates and allows one to learn much. Familiar material gone stale and over-dramatised. If the delivery was good it may have been more tolerable, but John Boyega's delivery accentuates further these weaknesses. He sounds utterly bored in all the episodes, especially in the first two, and when there is any dramatising it is as subtle as a sledgehammer.
Did think that the target audience was somewhat confused. Did appreciate that 'Serengeti' tried to appeal to the whole family, but it too often felt like it was aiming more for the younger audience. Playing it very safe a lot of the time and going too far on the simplicity. Only in "Exodus" and "Rebirth" are there signs of any proper risk-taking, and where there is the "shocked that this was even filmed" vibe seen in the best documentaries. Especially the former, which was also the least over-dramatised oddly enough. Some of the editing is not great, not always having cohesion and being repetitive. Especially in "Invasion", where it felt like a series of scenes randomly ordered.
Concluding, many beautiful things but too many oddities to consider it great. Something of a slightly above average missed opportunity. 6/10
score 6/10
TheLittleSongbird 22 June 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5845583/ |
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20-4-2021 01:25:07