Apple’s Prehistoric Planet 2 is full of feathery and ferocious new faces

Ever since The Blue Planet debuted greater than twenty years in the past, we’ve been residing in a very fruitful period of nature docs from the likes of the BBC and all of the varied streamers. With all of that celebrity-voiced competitors, it’s onerous to do one thing new within the house, however Apple TV Plus managed it by one thing previous — actually previous.

The first season of Prehistoric Planet had all the trimmings of a standard wildlife documentary, proper all the way down to the reassuring voice of Sir David Attenborough, however used them to discover the lives of dinosaurs 66 million years in the past. And it labored, providing such a totally realized imaginative and prescient of the previous that it virtually appeared actual. So naturally, now we have a sequel, which doesn’t do so much new apart from providing much more (and typically a lot stranger) creatures to look at. Then once more, it doesn’t actually have to vary a lot. I imply, have you ever seen the feathered, fuzzy raptor infants?

Look at this man:

Like the primary season, Prehistoric Planet 2 is a weeklong occasion, with a new episode releasing each day beginning on May twenty second. Each is constructed round a specific theme, like swamps, oceans, or badlands. Essentially, they’re very dramatized variations of animal habits. You’ll see infants born, creatures looking, and heaps of mating rituals. The distinction, of course, is that Prehistoric Planet 2 isn’t based mostly on actual footage of animals however CG recreations of dinosaurs and different prehistoric creatures.

Part of what makes it work is the acquainted system. It’s structured similar to the large nature docs, most notably Planet Earth, so it each appears and feels like a wildlife present you’ve in all probability already seen. The visuals are significantly key. The creatures on this present are so efficient that you just don’t actually should droop a lot disbelief as a result of it appears such as you’re really watching actual animals on digital camera (at the least most of the time).

That was all true final 12 months, and it stays true with Prehistoric Planet 2. But the new season does add just a few wrinkles to the system to maintain it fascinating. For starters, it actually expands past the dinosaurs we’ve all seen a lot of instances to make for some fascinating tales. The second episode has an interesting thread a couple of herd of Isisaurus, which elevate their younger in a crate surrounded by volcanic exercise in an effort to preserve them secure from predators. Some of probably the most fascinating creatures aren’t even dinosaurs: the primary episode consists of an lovely vegetarian crocodile (Simosuchus) and just a few mammals, together with this massive fella known as Adalatherium:

There are flightless seabirds, 17-foot-long predatory fish, primitive geese, and even swarms of tens of millions and tens of millions of flies. The ocean episode spends a great chunk of time devoted to Ammonites. That’s to not say there aren’t “classic” dinos. You’ll nonetheless see a lot of T. rex and different enormous predators looking, together with an unimaginable selection of differing types of raptors. But the second season does an awesome job at balancing the anticipated with detours into the stranger and lesser-known areas of prehistoric life.

It’s nonetheless largely a present extra targeted on leisure than schooling, however Prehistoric Planet 2 does go a step additional in explaining some of the science behind the present. In season 1, Attenborough would finish every episode by directing viewers to a web site the place they may be taught extra. This time, the episodes finish with numerous specialists explaining how they know a sure factor, whether or not it’s the way in which gigantic flying reptiles hunted or how a whale-sized predator was in a position to transfer so quick. You even get some perception into the triceratops’ distinctive horn.

Really, what Prehistoric Planet 2 reveals is that the primary season wasn’t profitable purely as a result of of novelty. There are a lot extra fascinating tales to discover 66 million years in the past — and the perfect ones are the strangest.

Prehistoric Planet 2 begins streaming on Apple TV Plus on May twenty second.