Night on Earth: A Door's Howl Review

Source: Indiewire (review here)

Synopsis

Night on Earth is a Netflix documentary series. Like many nature documentaries it follows a narrated story of animal interaction. Unlike other documentaries Night on Earth utilizes latest camera technologies capturing animals at night. Using infrared, extreme light sensitivity and thermal image cameras the Night on Earth footage is incredible.

I'm 3 episodes in to the 6 episode series and I am blown away. Here are just a few highlights:

• The incredible footage of cheetahs hunting at night, 
• The spectacular colors of scorpions in ultraviolet light, 
• The bioluminescent beauty of mushrooms and frogs
• The amazing blooming of cactus flowers under moonlit skies 
• The wondrous "roar" of a scorpion killing mouss

This series reveals the natural world in a powerful and beautiful way. Yes, it's a nature show, so you will see animals hunting each other, killing each other and living together. But I wouldn't hide it from kids, it's all part of learning. And they just might surprise you. As one of my own son's said after watching a lioness take down a Wildebeest, "What a John Cena move!" He doesn't even watch wrestling that I know of, so yes, surprising!

Since this comes on the heels of a recent post about the importance of the environment, I think this is worth watching. It's beautiful and educational. The narrator, Samira Wiley, is excellent, with the same gravitas and beauty of David Attenborough. The footage is well shot leaving me wondering how they got what they got. The stories are written to evoke emotion and they do a good job. It's a great documentary.

Now to go watch episode 4!

Score

Night on Earth scores a New Moon.

Scoring System

Wolves are thought to commonly howl at the moon. So, the better the moon, the greater the howl. Description of scoring system below.

Full Moon - best you can get, must watch and must own
New Moon - great movie, worth seeing and buying
Crescent Moon - average to above average, good to watch, but may want to wait for DVD
Sliver Moon - below average, not worth seeing and only get it on DVD when you have nothing better to do, like having a root canal
Moonless Night -not even worth mentioning - avoid at all costs!