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Post by zoograph on Nov 7, 2023 11:41:20 GMT 5
Seemingly content with the ending of this show, I was prepared to close the video player, but then… I saw a dragonfly imago emerge from an abandoned building… and fly into a landscape of semi-destroyed London. What the hell??? Since when this documentary is a Life after People promo? Isn’t it a History Channel original? Seriously though, I loved and still love this show where people suddenly vanished, but it definitely feels out of place here. Morgan Freeman just said that we can still correct our mistakes, but this part cancels out his words and instead paints a very grim and purely speculative vision of the future that did not yet happen. Maybe I’m a little bit too harsh, but it does feel like inserting aliens in the end of Our Planet. I came back to this and I think I can offer a small defense of this final scene.
First, I think that was just the most obvious way the writers could convey the concept of human extinction to the viewers. It's a clear post-apocalyptic city (London, from the looks of it, since I think I saw Big Ben in ruins), and will easily convey the "end of humanity" to anyone.
Now, why depict human extinction in the first place, even though Morgan Freeman offers encouragement that we can stop what we're doing (which I 100% believe we should do)? Because the ending of LOOP is basically a memento mori to any person – any human – who made it to the end of the show. It says, to borrow from a plaque in Rome's Capuchin Crypt, "What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be". Or in briefer, WWB's final, words, "No species lasts forever". If you take away anything from a natural history documentary or series that covers the history of life on Earth, it is that very lesson. Regardless of whether or not we successfully stop climate change, humanity will eventually go extinct. The only way we don't is if we can somehow find a way to leave this planet before it inevitably returns to being completely and utterly hostile to life, and from then on hop from planet to planet forever (and who can predict if we can do any of that?). If not (and let's face it, most likely not), then we will join the trilobites, the conodonts, the non-bird dinosaurs, the mammoths, and the Neanderthals in the rocks of the Earth.
An uncomfortable thought, I know, but a fact that we need to hear and acknowledge. Hmmm, to an extent, I can agree, though it really does look like 1) humanity went extinct in modern era, which is kind of weird and suggests that it's because of modern activity and 2) implies that humanity went extinct so fast they didn't even have time to demolish buildings or something so that they won't cause trouble. A simple human skull in a natural landscape or humans and their creations fading into wild forests and plains would've been more effective imo. |
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Post by dinosauria101 on Nov 7, 2023 21:34:00 GMT 5
I'm honestly surprised at the lack of complaints for the cave lion and mammoth scene. To me, the last part of the sequence is probably the worst part of the series. One cave lion, by itself brought down the teenage mammoth, and quickly killed it? What year is it? How strong do they think that lions are? If cave lions are this powerful, I can only ponder what they think that P.atrox could do. And it can take several minutes for lions to choke out animals far weaker than a mammoth, but this one comes out here like what people once thought that Smilodon could do. I'll retract this one if someone who knows about elephant necks has a counter, but good lord. Anyways, nice to see your thoughts. I might comment on some things in the near future. Agreed. Although it is not to the point of very few people noticing it, I am surprised that there are viewers who don't seem to have anything to say about it. As I alluded to in my spoiler comment, it would have been great to see the adult mammoths physically remove the lions from the adolescent. Not only entertaining but it would look far more visually convincing, considering the adults would have both the time and capabilities to do it before the adolescent would be suffocated. Speaking of this, I found this Planet Earth clip that would be useful for comparative purposes. ^Take note of how the leopard was far, far, far closer in size to the impala than the 1 attacking cave lion and 1-2 suffocating cave lions were to the mammoth. Yet the attacking cave lion seemed to pull down the mammoth with very similar ease to the leopard pulling down the impala, and the impala evidently had the strength to escape in a similar timeframe to which the mammoth suffocated and died. I don't think this clip can give us a full picture of just how long it would have taken the lions to realistically subdue and suffocate the mammoth, but it's certainly another nail in the coffin for what was shown on screen. Another thing I found somewhat contradictory is how quickly the remainder of the lions appeared, and the directions in which they appeared from - these implied that all the lions had gotten into place for the kill, but the narration clearly stated 'one of the hunters spots an opportunity', so by the show's logic the rest of the lions would need the time to catch on instead of being in place as well. One last thing I forgot to mention in my old comment: the plethora of ways for the adult mammoths to remove the lions from the adolescent. They could have shoved the lions away, stepped on their tails, heaved them with their tusks, or just charge them - now that these come to mind their reluctance to actually act against the lions holding down the adolescent makes even less sense. |
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Post by Exalt on Nov 8, 2023 3:03:27 GMT 5
So the segment I'm going to discuss is much better than the one above, but:
In the Doedicurus segment, is the Smilodon juvenile being unattended a realistic behavior here?
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Post by Infinity Blade on Nov 10, 2023 5:29:40 GMT 5
“Invaders of the Land” Review:- As theropod already mentioned, the key innovation for plants in growing stronger and larger would more likely be vascular tissue. Lignin is particularly important for wood and bark.
- The Arthropleura has a pretty cool color scheme. Most Arthropleura seem fairly dull in coloration. But this one has a nice mix of red, black, and yellow, and the surface texture on its armor is pretty well rendered.
- Boys don’t walk up to a sleeping girl and randomly wake her up just to get laid. That works better for Arthropleura.
- Some baby Rhizodus make their way out of water, as if they’re being presented as the first fish pioneers on land…only to be attacked by an Anthracosaurus. I get that they were trying to surprise us with a subversion, but they already gave it away in the opening sequence. Still, I like that they show that just because a more “advanced” form has arrived (in this case tetrapods) doesn’t mean that more “primitive” forms automatically go away (in this case sarcopterygians that are primarily aquatic but can venture onto land).
The one issue here is that, as pointed out earlier, this doesn’t give us a very thorough view of how lobe-finned fish actually invaded land. That’s despite the fact that this episode is called “Invaders of the Land” lol. - Shot 2 (this time with Anthracosaurus).
- ”…with their own…killer style…” *beat*
Producer: “Let the frog finish Morgan” - When amniotes are introduced, I like how they used lizards hatching out of soft-shelled eggs as a demonstration. Soft-shelled eggs are the default condition for amniotes. This is one small thing LOOP has over WWM.
- We’re then finally introduced to our two favorite “dynasties”: the reptiles and the synapsids. The former are first represented by Scutosaurus, which look pretty great. One even acts aggressive towards a Lystrosaurus, representing the synapsids. Great to see this armored, bulky megaherbivore not portrayed as a completely (though still mostly) placid beast.
- How hard is it to name the gorgonopsid? Based on what it lives with, the general appearance (although, it has been argued that this model isn’t exactly 100% perfect*), and the stated size (>300 kg), it’s most likely to be Inostrancevia, especially I. latifrons (the biggest species).
One thing I want to note is the noises it makes. They’re just big cat noises. I know people are cracking down more on inaccurate (or perceived to be inaccurate) vocalizations in prehistoric documentaries now, but…eh. I mean, people have slapped big cat roars and growls onto theropods before, this is nothing too awful (especially since gorgonopsids were actual synapsids like big cats). Make no mistake, this is not me saying an Inostrancevia sounded identical to a big cat, but I can live with it here.
*I’ll give them points for concealing the saber teeth, though. - Looking at the Scutosaurus herd more fully, it looks like there is indeed some variation in body size. At least one of them looks like it’s smaller than the rest, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the individual the gorgon chooses to kill later.
- Oh, yup, the gorgonopsid successfully kills its prey. But on the plus side, the Scutosaurus actually fights back! How many times have you seen that being depicted? Almost never.
I do question how easily the gorgon toppled over the Scutosaurus, but for the most part, I think this was a fine scene. - I listened closely to the background ambience of this scene, and I think I hear some twittering, which I can only imagine coming from a bird.
I get that they were just putting in some generic nature ambience here, but here’s a tip that I think the SFX peeps would’ve found useful. In the Permian, there were no birds. In fact, the only flying animals alive at this time were insects. What this means is that if you’re depicting the Permian, you don’t have to waste time putting in bird noises or any equivalent to have a nature ambience. Just the wind, insects, and the occasional calls of animals will do (in fact, it would be more accurate as well). - Ah yes, the Permian-Triassic extinction event. The explanation on the cause of the event seems to be pretty spot on. Though for me, the pathos and gut-wrenching horror of the worst mass extinction ever isn’t quite as strong here as it is for the O-S and Late Devonian extinctions earlier, if I am to be honest.
If you want a horrifying brief summary of the Permian extinction, listen to this excerpt-> from a book called “The Ends of the World” (by Peter Brannen) (since I don’t have the book myself, I have to rely on Gutsick Gibbon reading it out; actually her in-depth explanation of the extinction is gold as well). - However, I will say that the ending of the Lystrosaurus digging, panting, and walking off is pretty good. The pseudo-cliffhanger ending of “life hanging on by a thread” hits just a bit.
Verdict: Is this episode really about the “conquest of the land”? Depends on how you look at it. If you’re talking about the very process through which arthropods and tetrapods actually developed adaptations for moving and living on land…it’s not really that much. This happened during the Devonian (for tetrapods) and the Silurian (for arthropods), neither of which really figure in this episode (which begins in the Carboniferous). But what if you’re talking about the greater scope of animal colonization of land, where either arthropods or amniotes dominate? Not just about becoming terrestrial, but also diversifying into terrestrial niches (land herbivores, for instance, become a thing in the late Carboniferous/early Permian). Remember that there’s a difference between inhabiting land and “conquering” it (as WWM put it). In that regard, I think it does okay. It is pretty basic (age of insects—>tetrapods (including “amphibians”)—>amniotes, including synapsids and reptiles forming two dynasties—>Permian-Triassic extinction), but as far as teaching the general public goes, I think it’s good enough. Apart from that, I don’t know, I don’t feel too much for this episode. Unironically the coolest thing (at least in my opinion) I can remember about this episode was seeing Scutosaurus vs Inostrancevia. I guess it’s…alright? Solid, depending on how you frame “conquest of land”? A little bit of a shame, since I felt kind of underwhelmed by the presentation of the P-T event here.
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Post by dinosauria101 on Nov 21, 2023 20:07:01 GMT 5
Pre-review comments on E6: I was rereading theropod's review for it, and on further thought, I'm in more agreement with it than I initially expected to be. I too get the impression of an under-fleshed narrative, and kind of dislike their repeated emphasis on birds being dinosaurs coming with a failure to show us any actual Mesozoic birds.
It goes beyond just their failure to show us birds having to get past the K-Pg. As they don't have a problem with time jumps of any length of time, there is so much they could have shown us: Archaeopteryx (which in hindsight I am surprised we did not see), Confuciusornis, Balaur, enantiornithines to elaborate on Prehistoric Planet, etc.
I also think more Mesozoic birds could have strengthened the narrative, because viewers could be shown more similarities between birds and non-avian dinosaurs by seeing ie birds that still had teeth and hand claws. Animals like Balaur in particular would be good candidates for that because it's been unclear whether they are birds or non-avian dinosaurs.
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