Planet Earth

Have you been watching this show? For once, I seem to be a late bloomer, not having watched any of this fantastic Discovery Channel/BBC documentary until earlier this week. But seriously, I mean, have you watched this show?! It's incredible!

For those of you who haven't been swept up in this phenomenon yet (I was late too, no hard feelings), Planet Earth is an 11-part "miniseries event" that takes a remarkably in-depth look at the flora and fauna of Earth in 11 different habitats such as fresh water, jungles, mountains, caves and deserts. Filmmakers spent roughly 5 years capturing these unbelievable images with a variety of zoom lenses and special photography that bring you mere inches away from glowworms in caves 100 miles deep or orangutans fighting each other for figs in the treetops.

If you can't watch this in High Def, don't bother watching at all. Without the high definition picture, this series becomes just another good science documentary narrated by a movie star with a calming voice (in this case, Sigourney Weaver, who is good, but is no Morgan Freeman). But with the crisp picture afforded by HD, it becomes a masterpiece, an event, something to be watched with your family and friends as you "ooh" and "aah" together at the fascinating beauty of nature and of our world.

What's so great about Planet Earth is that you don't need to like science or nature or anything like that to love this program. Think of it along the same lines as 2005's smash documentary March of the Penguins. None of us really cares all that much about penguins, but with beautiful photography, fascinating subjects, great editing to shape a narrative within the documentary, and sparse yet informative narration, that film, like this series, was enjoyed by millions. All you need is an open mind, some friends to watch with, and an HD television.

Unfortunately, the series is done airing on Discovery (last night was the last episode, Caves), so to catch the show, you'll have to watch it On Demand or buy/rent the DVD, which is already for sale. However, make sure you buy the DVD on Blu-Ray or HD-DVD because again, the picture and sound quality really make all the difference. But no matter how expensive the DVD set may be, I promise you it will be worth every penny.

For more information, check out Discovery's Planet Earth site.

Have any of you readers seen Planet Earth? What did you think?