I watched the last episode of Human planet and, just like with the rest of the series, I was left with mixed emotions. For more than any nature programme in my time, it had the ability to go from the incredible to the incredibly dull in under a minute. The scenic juxtapositions were almost bathetic: see the first episode and the segue from barnacle fishers in Galicia to sperm whale hunting in Indonesia for further evidence.
Don’t get me wrong, as a long-time fan of the BBC’s documentary programming, there was, as ever, a lot to love in the series. It did contain some genuinely amazing, never-before-seen footage of people who tend to be overlooked by the media and highlighted the plight of many worthy causes. The production values were predictably great and it was mostly enjoyable. But something in it rang particularly false. Or hollow, maybe, as it failed to achieve the heady heights of either Life or Planet Earth.
There were a number of obvious problems with the programme, prime among them the amount of artifice that seemed to go into the capturing of the footage. Nearly every image seemed staged and the dialogue seemed scripted. More HD Hollywood than authentic documentary. As a Spanish speaker, this was certainly the case with the Chileans in the desert episode, who seemed about as natural chatting as Dave Cameron was with the hoodies. The subtitles’ Heroes-esque, dynamic movement did little to hide this and it probably stems from the fact that humans are a darn sight easier to manipulate than animals.
On a personal note, the Madagascar-caused lack of David Attenborough was also a shame, and that is no sleight on John Hurt. It’s just that, having grown up with the gravelly austerity of Attenborough, Hurt sounded disingenuous and pompous in comparison. All of his statements stank of pretentiousness and the faux-grand and Nitin Sawhney’s soundtrack did little to lessen its misplaced self-importance. Also, the pushing of a green agenda – Norman Foster propaganda aside – a staple of any nature show these days, does not have to come at the expense of entertainment.
My misgivings, well-founded or otherwise, could well come from the fact that animals, whatever humans do, will always seem more impressively adapted to whatever environment they are in. They don’t all come from the appalling last episode anyway. Or the wasted ten minutes that the Behind the Lens bit at the end of every episode represented. Given that it took three years and a mammoth quantity of money to film, I expected more from some episodes.
But anyway, I have watched certain episodes (like the Oceans one) again and they are as beguiling and cool as ever and well worth another look. I had jut hoped for more consistency over the eight episodes.
I'll also never tire of watching this:
