Reviews

This is an episode about the men who sacrificed their lives so that the world could live.

PLOT (No Spoilers): Our history has seen innumerable famines due to droughts, wars, and many other misfortunes. There wasn't an absolute solution to the problem. This is the story about how we understood the problem and came up with the solution.

Our wandering forebears found a way to settle down - agriculture. But the start of this new practice wasn't really conducive. They knew nothing of the chemistry or the biology behind it. They weren't entirely successful in reaping copious crops every year.

But then, one man was successful in understanding the science behind it. He paved a way for the revolution that would happen in the field of agriculture, which would lead to large scale eradication of famine around the world. This is an episode about the birth of Genetics.

This episode also portrays the fraudulence of human nature, and how the whole world had to pay a great price for the idiocy of a single man. The men of science, just like today, had to face the cruelty of politics, yet they strove hard to achieve what they had set out to.

This episode is a heart wrenching one. A man who had the intention of eradicating the world's hunger would be forced to die of starvation. Tears roll down your cheeks, better grab a kerchief before you watch. You wouldn't leave anything on your plate before you wash your hand if you know this story.

If we're here today, we probably owe something to those botanists that gave their lives for us.

DIRECTION: The story has been told by getting the facts straight, and to the point. The episode begins with Tyson narrating under the Northern lights, it's a feast for the eyes. Some of the scenes are heart-warming, but most are heartbreaking. Overall, it's excellent.

CINEMATOGRAPHY: For the first and the only time, the series uses stop motion animation techniques in this episode. And it's wonderful.

NARRATION: As it always has been, Neil deGrasse Tyson's voice is crisp and deeply engaging. His voice modulations keep the watcher before the screen till the end.

MUSIC: With the story, narration, and cinematography, music is like the cherry on top. But, it doesn't feel like an entirely new piece, it's a blend of the previous pieces from the same series.

TL;DR Watch this if you are a person who wouldn't mind leaving food on your plate or throwing it out.

There are already tons of documentaries on the origin and evolution of planets. What make this one unique is that it's got high graphics and updated facts as of 2019(not much though), apart from that it's same as all the other documentaries.

Brian Cox, as always, narrated the story in a 'magnificient' and 'eloquent' way.

If I were to suggest this to someone, the only reason I could think of is the graphics.

A story that focuses on a tigress named 'Raj Bhera' and her children in Bandhavgarh tiger reserve, India.

This episode has brought them closer to me than I was before. I learnt quite a lot about this wonderful animal. I am finding myself loving the tigers after watching the episode. For their grace, strength, intelligence, alertness, beauty and also having the highest population of the Tigers in the world, there's no wonder that India has made this amazing creature as its National animal.

The lives of these tigers show that the gender discrimination is not just limited to homo sapiens but it stands upright in some of the other species like this one. How is a female cub treated differently from her other male siblings, what forces her to leave her family, how does she build a new territory of her own. This episode on tigers unfolds some of these untold facts of the animal.

As always the episode gets a whole lot of different touch with the narration of Attenborough and the camera work of crew. The filming crew has spent years capturing the minute details. They deserve a big salute.

Like every other episode this, also, has shown the hardships that tigers face. With only few of these left in the wild, it's our duty to preserve this wonderful creation of nature for our future generations.

Do not miss to be awed! Go on, watch it.

What difference does a number 'twenty four and a half' make? May be nothing to you. But, that half a number can kill creatures. The tilt of Earth's 24 ½ degree is giving hard times to the creatures that live near the poles and challenging their ability to save themselves.

The episode focuses on a colony of emperor penguins. To someone who doesn't know what emperor penguins are, the name might sound majestic, 'Emperor'. But, only those who have seen the lives of these animals will know how tough their lives are. Yet, the penguins fight the odds like a real emperor and make their life possible in the cold dark environment.

BBC has made many documentaries on penguins. But, this episode has captured some never-seen amazing scenes and never-imagined incredible stories. And this time the crew have broke their cardinal rule, 'No-interference-with-the-wildlife-while-filming', but why exactly did that happen? Watch the episode to know, and anyone would have done the same. I would have done the same.

The filming crew has really struggled a lot to capture the lives of these birds. They have spent a year with them to bring us an episode of 1 hour. This episode will make you cry. So, grab a kerchief before you sit before the TV.

Know our world a little better than yesterday.

This is a story that revolves around the strongest alpha male chimp we have ever known, which tries to hold the leadership of a territory by displaying its strength and extraordinary intellect.

It's not the story of a fictional 'Caesar' but the real life of a chimp called 'David'.

The episode reminds me of our own past. These chimps like the rest of the species on Earth exhibit, the desire to take power, love for their family, strength to fight against the rivals and their need to leave a legacy. They battle against themselves and with the nature to make their life possible and comfortable.

As always the story is well portrayed with the narration of David Attenborough. The crew has wandered around a particular troop of chimpanzee for about two years to bring us this masterpiece.

The episode also emphasises on the threat that's being faced by the chimps. Just like them, the desires of humans for gold is destroying the habitat of chimps and the West African chimps are already endangered.

You will never look at the chimps like you used to after watching this. They are so much like us OR I should say we are so much like them. It's no wonder that we share about 98% of our DNA with them as the closest relative.

Do not forget to watch!!