Norteamérica

"North America" is a nature show about the animals of North America that has been shown on the Discovery Channel here in the States. While I have not seen all the episodes, I was blown away by "North America". As I sat and watched with my aunt and uncle, I just couldn't believe the cinematography--and it simply looked too good for television. It has about the best camera work of any show I can recall--with breathtaking scenery, clips of animals doing things you've never seen on film before, and a scope that is incredible. Seen on a large HD TV, it is simply a delight. Now I would give the show a 10 but for one small annoyance. Too often the filmmakers thought it would be clever to show clips of these animals set to pop music (such as a pika running about set to the tune "9 to 5") and I found this really annoying and took me out of the moment. Still, a minor crime in an otherwise impeccable show.

By the way, although the show is called "North America", it only seems to be about the animals of the US and Canada--not the rest of North America (such as Mexico, Belize, and the Caribbean).

The photography is fantastic, however the narration is exceedingly poor. A curious melange; assuming your audience is a naive eight year old whose never experienced nature, coupled to a especially bold level of American Jingoism. I've never heard such chauvinistic patriotism in a Nature Documentary.

It comes across as Americana delirium mated to beautiful visuals, like a pet propaganda project. The Music is often misplaced and overwrought as well... when they shut up and just show the wonderful visuals it's a striking meditation on Nature, but those moments are few. It's a shame that visual genius was coupled to written lunacy.

WITH SO MANY nature films stockpiled, how few pay any attention to what is essentially our "back yard"(here in the United States). It is indeed a pleasure to see and hear about the incredible interactions between the Flora, Fauna and the ever-changing Weather of our Continent.

IT WOULD APPEAR that generally we as a viewing public seem to prefer such nature documentaries to be set in more exotic venues; or so it would seem that way to the studios, producers and networks. One only need look at the list of previous popular films and series. From those Safari Movies of Martin & Osa Johnson through the present day PBS staples,such as NATURE, and you'll see that programs centering on our continent are numbered among a small minority.

WE STUMBLED UPON this gem tonight, quite by accident. The filming, editing and varying subject matters all have come together in making it a delight to the senses. The two installments that we watched on the DISCOVERY CHANNEL proved to be as entertaining as they were informative. (Even "Educational", if you will).

HERE'S HOPING that NORTH America will have a long life and that it will be prolific and spawn many like series in the future.

North America has amazing and stunning photography. What the photographers had to endure to capture just the right scene was astonishing, and at times nerve wracking. Tom Selleck does an amazing job of narrating each show. As stated above by a less than desirable review, Mr. Selleck's political choice and right should not come into play when viewing or buying this series of DVD's. Also be aware that Mr. Selleck did not write the narration of North America, he was hired to read a script which he does a wonderful job of doing! I would like to see more North America films with him narrating, his voice is perfect for it. As for the music, it was actually funny at times (and keeps an audience of smaller people engaged, and lets older ones laugh). The theme song is perfect for the series! One review above stated that the series did not show animals further south... Yes it does, they went to Costa Rica!

From the first episode I found the narration of this series slightly irritating. Excuse my European point of view, but after watching numerous other nature series (mostly by David Attenborough) I was really disappointed with the level of ignorance and misplaced pseudo-nationalism here. Granted, officially the series is about North America as a continent and not about the USA as a country, but every time the narrator said " 'Murica..." I couldn't help but feel the narrator wanted to convey his pride of the U.S.A. 'Muricans are tough, and so are it's animals -- or something like that. I really felt disgusted how they managed to turn an otherwise beautiful nature series into what felt like right wing propaganda 101. How do you turn footage of a rodent gathering flowers to survive winter into a piece of right-wing propaganda? Watch "North America", and Tom Selleck will show you!

Halfway through the second episode I found myself thinking: seriously, if that guy is going to mention "only the strongest/toughest" one more time, I think I'm gonna break something.

After a quick Google search I found that the series is narrated by Tom Selleck, who in completely unrelated news is a right-wing NRA-member, and I found myself thinking: geee.... why the heck am I not surprised?

Not only do his cheesy one-liners give you an atmosphere of misplaced nationalism that really doesn't belong in a series about a subject so politically neutral as 'wildlife'; it is also filled with blatant lies. "Only the toughest survive." ...? and "Only the strongest deserve the right to call 'Murica HOME." ...? Apparently someone did an excellent job at misunderstanding how nature works, and raping Charles Darwin's "survival of the fittest" at the same time. For those of you who don't know: FYI, that is NOT what "survival of the fittest" means, or in any case not how modern day biologists would explain evolution or the way competition and survival in nature work. Not EVERYTHING in nature is about strength, toughness, physical power, or even absurd notions such as "courage".

Because the way the narrator 'personifies' animals with human character traits is another thing that started to irritate me more and more. Seriously, couldn't they have found a narrator who could bring a little more scientific neutrality into this? This kind of human projection on a 'tough' animal of your liking, is the kind of propaganda that would put the USSR to shame. The fact that the USA has chosen the bald eagle as it's symbol, does NOT mean that the bald eagle also chose America as it's home because it liked that particular country's "tough guy" image. But that is the kind of bullshit thing that you constantly get the feeling Tom Selleck wants to make you believe.

Newsflash: other countries in the world are ALSO home to supposedly 'tough' animals like mountain goats, eagles, bears, etc. But Tom Selleck wants you to believe that the 'magnificent' continent of North America is the only place where these "champions of nature" live, and so much as makes the claim that North America is the toughest natural environment on earth, which creates the toughest animals anywhere. While I think that claim is highly debatable, most of all I think: what a disgusting thing to turn a nature show into a schoolyard 'toughness' contest.

Instead of using nature to teach people as a species some humbleness, here it is used the opposite way and nature is abused as the supposed background that your imaginary god must have created to illustrate (North American) people's awesomeness? If you think I am exaggerating, watch two episodes of this series and see what you think of the commentary...

The imagery is beautiful, and the things you see are of course value- free; they are factual things that are actually happening in nature, simply captured on film for us to see. But the narrator does a perfect job of showing how a little narration can steer this value-free content into a certain direction. His narration forces you into a stunningly one-dimensional understanding of nature. And that may be the greatest flaw of all in this series that would otherwise be a beautiful and educational show.

So purely based on the stunning footage, I would give this show an 8 out of 10, but because of the way the narration ruins the entire thing, I really can't give it more than a 6. If you really want to learn something while you are looking at stunning imagery (instead of loosing 5 IQ points with every episode), I would recommend watching something from David Attenborough's huge oeuvre.