LaughingTigerIMDb

How I wish Bertie Gregory was hired to do the narration for what could have been a wonderful series. It's him that hosted the journey at each locale, documenting his findings, and therefore it should have been him in the studio doing the narration for his own work.

First, the two stars I'm giving go to Bertie, the penguins, and the lovely scenery we are privileged to enjoy. However, Blake Lively's performance as the narrator eliminates the stars this otherwise would have been granted, doing such a horrible job, and anyone else involved in putting her into the studio in the first place.

The problem with Lively is not just the sound of her voice, but her insufferable insistence to sound dramatic and cute.

Others at fault for this problem is whoever wrote the narration script, the script manager who gave the okay on everything, and the director who recorded Lively who likely encouraged her to sound "nature-narrative-sounding". Not to mention someone in the studio being unable to control -- nor correct -- Lively's continuous, child-like mispronunciation of Antarctica as Ant-Artica.

Blake Lively's unusually slow pacing of her read, and the strange tone of her voice was extremely distracting. Someone other than Lively put their hand into the audio production, but someone also had to have Lively in mind in order to cast her as the narrator in 2024, long before this series' release in 2025. This is also poor timing with Lively's popularity plummeting after her public scandal. But with the scandal aside, it doesn't change the fact that she was not suited for this project.

Is this casting mistake enough to enjoy the penguins? Well, let's consider this. In 2005 the documentary March of the Penguins, which was warmly narrated by Morgan Freeman had garnered nearly two dozen awards in various categories for its efforts. What we have with Secrets of the Penguins is an updated version with 4K visuals in three full-length episodes, giving more time to include more information on different types of penguins other than the Emperor Penguin, which seems to be the most commonly-known type of penguin. SotP allows the viewers to get to know penguins that inhabit Africa, South Africa, and the Southern Ocean. So you have some benefits from watching one documentary/docuseries over the other.

What is slightly annoying is hearing both Blake Lively and Bertie Gregory often mention their "never before seen on camera" type of self-applauding, reminding the viewer that what they've captured is basically a competition regarding who got to video something first. Cue all of the wonderful episodes of the Planet Earth franchise, where we barely heard Sir David Attenborough boast that something was never-before-seen on camera. It was narrated, and documented. Simple.

Just a note that I would not have minded a female voice to narrate this series. Some wonderful, professional voice talent like Tish Iceton would have been marvelous, but it seems the franchise is focusing on Hollywood to narrate, adding a bit of Hollywood flair to their reading, and only one actor per series. To me, when it came to the actors and the constant need to write and show some drama or self-aggrandizing, this franchise was about Hollywoodizing/Americanizing these documentaries, rather than just creating an in-depth, warm delivery of what could have been something great.

For the first time in a long time, I could watch a film and not be subjected to foul language and smut.

So what if there's a bit of fictional corruption going on behind the scenes in the Vatican? It's just a story, and people need to calm down about this.

I was more concerned that I was going to watch some dirty activity whether it was sexual or some sort of violence, but was relieved to know that this film had a simple approach to allow us to analyze the characters and consider their past and present actions. So take a big sigh of relief, there is nothing perverse to see in this film.

As for the ending that everyone is talking about. Again, people need to relax. It's just a drama. I enjoy the fact that this film was meant to make me think about what could be and what isn't. Ralph Fiennes is amazing, and I must say, so is Stanley Tucci. The answer to "How are you?" with "Fairly dreadful" is now my new favourite thing to say.

I usually base a review on my viewing experience, but I never thought I'd have to bomb a review based on the horrible sound editing. Something was very wrong: either Peter Dinklage's narration was hot, or the rest of the documentary's sound and interviews were extremely quiet.

I gave this terrible flaw a chance during the entirety of the first episode, but when I noticed it was flawed in episode two, I stopped watching altogether. I was constantly turning Peter's narration down, and then turning up the volume for everything else. To me, this is like a highschool project where some kid didn't get a grasp on how to balance the levels throughout.

Aside from that, and speaking of highschool, there are plenty of pop-art or comic-book style animations to move things along, in between some actual footage. The whole idea is to bring forth an idea of what tyranny is or could be, based on what we've seen throughout history. And we all know what this documentary is driving at: Trump. Anyone can easily identify the jabs toward Trump throughout episode one, because he's clearing checking all the boxes.

For those that recognize what a tyrant is, we don't need to be lectured. This is probably why this whole documentary is packaged for fun. For those who don't recognize tyranny in some leaders, they can learn something in the most simplistic way.

I simply can't watch this due to the sound production flaws. It offers information on each tyrant that is easily Googleable, which again, makes me feel like we're not exactly learning anything new. We're just being handed the information in a moving comic-book sort of style.

I really feel for Peter Dinklage who took this project on. He deserves better. But I think he actually is the only reason I think anyone would be bothered to watch/listen to this series. If only the sound was properly checked and corrected before its release.