Have said more than once about being a fan of nature documentaries and a long-term one. Since being raised on the likes of 'Planet Earth' and 'The Blue Planet'. My sister is an even bigger one and is very knowledgable, remember with fondness sitting down together seeing the likes of 'Blue Planet II', 'Dynasties' and 'Our Planet' when they aired. One can see that the cited documentaries are from the incomporable David Attenborough, but there are numerous great documentaries without his involvement.
'Spy in the Wild', lasting two seasons of four episodes each excluding a behind the scenes episode (despite a three years gap between the two how the second season was executed was like the gap hadn't existed), is one of those. It is not just extremely well made, very entertaining, beautifully delivered and has so many bits that really illuminated me. It is also different, how many documentaries capture these amazing animals and their behaviours and their methods of love, inelligence, friendship, getting into mischief etc so intimately and in such an effective way?
All thanks to the use of spy animal cameras, capturing the various actions undercover. Essentially it is a gimmick, and relatively innovative. Though a series of Wildlife Specials from Attenborough long ago also filmed up close animals' way of living and such focusing on a different animal with each special, though to me it wasn't really a gimmick as such. Usually am not a fan of gimmicks, they can be overused and cheap and some visual media that use gimmicks revolve too heavily around them. The spy animal cameras actually worked really well and made for some very memorable character interactions in the second season, like with the beavers ("The North") and the puffins ("The Poles"). The gimmick was not overused, neither was it abused.
They are not perfectly executed by all means. Did feel actually that the animatronics for the spy animals did vary, some were fine like Spy Termite ("Intelligence") and with the arctic wolves ("Friendship"). But some in particularly the second season were a little too robotic and unintentionally creepy, ike with the macaque ("The North") and with the jaguars ("The Tropics").
However, there is just so much to love about 'Spy in the Wild'. The photography is wonderful and at its best spell-binding, some of the most memorable parts being with the drogos and meerkat battle ("Intelligence"), the aerial attack ("Mischief"), the ray Mexican wave ("The North") and the monarch butterflies ("The North"). It was amazing to see so many animals up close, including the likes of jaguars ("The Tropics"), crabs ("The Islands"), orangutans ("Intelligence"), puffins ("The Poles") and penguins ("Love"). The scenery is also beautifully captured and at its best enchanting, The Galapagos for instance is a very familiar location but always worth seeing anywhere.
Occasionally have found that some documentaries can be scored in a too intrusive and over-dramatic way, a vast majority of them are fine but there have been some that have music that distracts (a primary example being the recent 'Serengeti'). The music in 'Spy in the Wild' is fine, tonally varied and pleasant to listen to with one of the better scored episodes being "Love". The narration manages a great balance of entertaining and teaching, in a way that's sincere and appealing to all ages. Never does it get too juvenile, too complicated, too preachy or too treacly and it isn't used too much either and found myself learning so much, more so than most other documentaries in recent memory.
While Attenborough is incomporable in my view when it comes to narrating and presenting nature documentaries, it is always nice to have a change every now and again and it doesn't get much better than David Tennant. At no point does he sound bored or over-compensate, he is always enthusiastic (like seeming like he was in as much awe of the penguin mating in "Love" as the viewer) but he knows when to tone down and does so with sincerity. There are many memorable moments, whether funny (the lemur sequence in "Mischief"), immensely charming (the puffins in "The Poles" and the quokkas in "The Islands"), playful (the penguins in "Love") and emotional (the whole Arctic wolves story in "Friendship" and the languar monkeys in "Love)).
Some very interesting and to me not seen before behaviours can be seen here, such as the fish and hippos ("Friendship"), the orangutans showing very human behaviour in sawing wood ("Intelligence"), the squirrel's defending their food from sea otters ("Intelligence"), the monarch butterflies ("The North"), the communication between the animals in the rattlesnake sequence ("Friendship") and the fish and the hippos ("Friendship"). Amazing to see them so up close too without being claustrophobic, have also not seen gorilla dominance this intimately either than what is portrayed in "The Tropics").
It was interesting seeing different sides to familiar animals too, such as seeing a softer side to the usually viciously portrayed wild dogs ("Love"), the amusingly unusual bit with the amorous tortoise ("Love"), the unusual relationship between crocodiles and the less familiar dikkops ("Friendship") and how composed the jaguars were despite being in the presence of one of the series' creepiest spy animals ("The Tropics"). And in some cases in very relatably human situations, especially the Arctic wolves. It is always great to see scenes in documentaries where one is amazed at how they managed to be captured on film, Attenborough's work is full of it and with flashes of that here 'Spy in the Wild' manages to have more than plenty for adults. Was especially taken with the drogo and meerkat scene ("Intelligence"), the lemur one ("Mischief"), the aerial attack ("Mischief"), the monarch butterflies ("The North"), the mating brawl ("The Poles") and the feeding frenzy ("The Tropics").
Bottom line, great series and will be more than happy if another season is made. 9/10
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