Asia

A huge and startling set of extremely gorgeous things concentrating within the gigantic expanse of land that is deemed to be Asia. There's an interesting narrative turn here away from broad environmental fretting to focussing on individual success stories which feels like a choice but it still has the dark tangents usually present in BBC studio nature documentaries which prevents it from feeling like a piece of careful marketing. The stirringly bizarre visages of the Tibetan fox and the purple frog is always a welcome sight, and some of the big cat footage here, especially in the singular landscape of Iraqi Kurdistan is jaw-dropping.

The trailers are more interesting than series. Nothing new here if you've seen best of BBC earth series. Sir David's voice varies from 65 yrs old @ start of BBC earth series to his late 80s. Most of short clips in this series viewer expects from behind the scenes/making of a docu.

"Asia" here means mostly India, bits of Tibet, Mongolia, & same repeated clips of panda, blue face monkeys, red raccoon in North China shown in "7 Worlds 1 planet (Asia)." Siberian tiger same clip reversed in Planet Earth 1 & Frozen Planet II, ep Frozen Lands. Indian tiger shown here same as Dynasties II (Tiger ep). There's few fleeting glimpses of lovely Brazilian veg wolf & pups from COMPUTER screen. Bizarre scientists refuse to determine cause of death of newly discovered keynote species, a mother veg wolf when she "walked on farmer's field." Why not retrieve her collard body? Her newborn pups will die. Scientists appear afraid/ apathetic. Yet veg wolf's death occurred YRS before during filming of "Planet Earth 3." Sadly, there's so little remaining intact ecosystems to film, or lack of budget to continually film for yrs any species, not much material for new series. Here, No military grade nor night vision cameras are used as in Apple TV / Netflix docus. Instead, BBC America shows lots of same commercials for slivers of outdated enhanced content. Now it's streaming on AMC+.

I've seen 4 eps & recognize the repeated / reversed clips bc I have the best of BBC earth library. Also MAX (hbo) streams many of best BBC earth series, not any of Sir David's old yet stunning "Spy in the Wild" films which still fascinate & remind viewer many EDENS that existed 25 years ago, now gone.

This is def NOT a "must see" series due to repetition & fragmented content.

As with all David Attenborough series, I was very excited to watch Asia, and viewed in a microcosm this is an excellent documentary series about animal and plant life in one of our planets most fascinating continents. However, when stacked up against some of the other truly great Attenborough series, this one feels a touch underwhelming.

There are some great scenes and stories told in Asia, but it lacks the consistent wow factor that the best-in-class nature series produce, and it doesn't feel like there's anything groundbreaking or even new here. The final "human" episode caps off a disappointing finish to a series that never quite elevates to the extraordinarily high level that many of Attenborough nature series in the past have reached.

Stunning Documentary This series is the first major documentary produced by BBC covering the gorgeous wildlife and awe-inspiring sceneries and landscapes of Asia. I think it was a much needed, and for me, a long awaited series as Asia is the largest continent in the world with mesmerizing landscapes, ancient enchanted forests, magical deserts and bewitching wildlife. As usual with BBC documentary series, the cinematography is striking, camerawork is amazing and the efforts poured into making this series for four years is admirable. On top of all these is the velvety voiceover of the legendary naturalist, Sir David Attenborough that adds a soothing touch to the series. It is a respite, a reprieve from all the harrowing and sanguine happenings now engulfing the continent. This series is portraying the beautiful and majestic side of the continent, the side that, if seen, heeded and pored over by people in power, might change their perception of the world and life in not only in the continent but in the world.