Life

Words cannot describe how amazing this documentary is. Watching the series, you will continuously wonder how the camera crew was able to film the events and in such high definition.

When I first watched the 'Planet Earth' series, I thought the production qualities on a documentary of this genre could not be surpassed until I watched 'Life'. Narrated by David Attenborough, 'Life' feels like an improved version of 'Planet Earth' with a focus specifically on how life works. The series shows how complex, beautiful, and harsh life is with absolute clarity.

Most of us live in cities away from wildlife making us forget about the world beyond humans. 'Life' takes us on a journey into nature we never get to see in our normal lives, and for the most part, never knew existed.

The Blu Ray comes with 1080p resolution, Aspect ratio: 1.78:1 and audio DTS-HD HR 5.1. The series was able to take advantage of the latest camera stabilization technology while filming from helicopters and planes, the results are some sublime overhead and establishing shoots. My favourite comes from the insect episode where the camera starts off looking downwards at a waterfall before smoothly panning up to reveal a lake, beyond that a forest and beyond that again a large mountain in the distance with not a sole in sight.

By 2009 HD digital cameras were in full use by the BBC's natural history unit, having previously been used on Planet Earth (2006) and Life in Cold Blood (2008), no longer 480p but now 720 and then 1080.

The plant episode is one of my favourites with it's expert use of time lapse photography, it feels like an updated Private Life of Plants. The beautiful winter photography in this episode is also a stand out feature. The sound is also crisp and clean, whether it's a trickle of water, a rustling leaf, insect noise or an animal call. The narration from David Attenborough is also distinct, intelligible and is never muffled by the score.

On the critical side some of the most recent releases from the BBC natural history unit feature slightly less factual content, the programme seems more interested in trying to wow you with it's imagery and music than trying to educate the viewer. Earlier series tended to be drier, with more detailed narration. Life just about gets away with it's approach, the content is still very informative, there isn't so much attempt to build up drama or humour as later series would do. During the primates episode the narration did border on stating the obvious too, not trusting the audience to grasp finer points but spelling it all out for them. Attenborough tells us 3 times that the Japanese macaques monkeys in the hot spring exclude other monkeys, it slightly labours the point here. Show don't tell please.

Another stand out episode is the insects with frogs leaping in slow motion to catch insects to the sound of violin strings and soft drums. The soundtrack is orchestral having moved away from the more symphonic sound often used in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the cinematography of the butterflies in Mexico is sublime as is the time lapse photography of changing skies. We also learn a great deal too in this episode about insect camouflage, armour and acid. 85,000 species of fly. It's worth reflecting too on how critically threatened much of this is by global warming and overpopulation. Behind the scenes looking at this episode is also well worth a look. Commercial drones for photography weren't really around back in 2009, very different to today. For one shot the camera had to glide along a wire in order to travel with the butterflies. 17 takes were done after 3 days of prep for what probably amounted to 5 seconds of footage. These people are trying so hard to get the right result for the viewer, you have to applaud the results. Unofficial sources put the budget of this programme at around £10 million, it's not just the production where the money was spend I'd bet but also the post production, All the footage looks like it's been extensively colour corrected to ensure everything looks.

Great documentary. I cannot say anything negative of this, it was simply amazing

Despite how much he apparently dislikes the term "national treasure", that term really does sum up David Attenborough to a tee. He is such a great presenter (in his 90s and still sounds, and looks on a side note, great) and whenever a new series of his is aired they are often among the best the BBC has done in years.

Am a great fan of a lot of Attenborough's work and BBC's nature documentaries with his involvement are among their best work in years. Have been watching the BBC less over time, but there are always exceptions, unexpected gems and expected treasures that come our way every now and again and their nature documentaries are the perfect examples of expected treasures. 'Life' is a crowning achievement for a documentary series and actually, like the best documentary shows, feels much more than that. As far as Attenborough's work goes too, 'Life' to me is one of his biggest achievements.

'Life' is an exceptionally well-made series first and foremost, in fact saying that doesn't do the production values justice. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the animals), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic. The editing is always succinct and smooth and the scenery and various habitats are remarkably diverse and look speechlessly spectacular.

On a documentary level, 'Life' continually fascinates and illuminates, while there are some familiar facts here a lot of it was very much new (like a lot of the principles of evolution) and by the end of the series for me more was gotten out of it, and educated me much more than, anything taught when studying Geography in secondary school. Attenborough's narration helps quite significantly too, he clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more.

The wildlife and life-forms are both adorable and dangerous, the wide-ranging diversity of what was included was staggering and it was lovely to see a mix of the familiar and the not-so-familiar. How they adapt to their environments, why they behave the way they do, how nature works and how what the wildlife and life-forms do affects their environments were all touched upon and made their points subtly, not hammering it home too much (a potential danger with documentaries).

Many powerful and poignant moments, as well as suspenseful ones, while not trying too hard to evoke a viewer reaction. One really cares for what they're told and the wildlife. Each episode doesn't feel like an episodic stringing of scenes, but instead like the best nature documentaries each feels like their own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.

Overall, a crowning achievement, for Attenborough and nature documentaries in general. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Overall good but far from great. My biggest issues were varied starting with most of this has been filmed and covered by bbc in past nature docs. My second issue was with Oprahs narrating. It was almost robotic with rarely any excitement on her part. Very unlike Attenborough who nails it every time and is very emotive. A big thing that took me right out of the doc was watching on BluRay the cuts to the commercial breaks were very very obvious. It's something I've never noticed in any of their nature docs and I've seen most repeatedly. Last complaint was a lack predation and a definite lack of showing the gore.