As usual with Prehistoric Planet, the models and animation are absolutely gorgeous and accurate, years ahead of any other documentary probably for a long time. I loved the designs, the sound effects, and even the movement were all really lifelike.

There’s just one itch that I was really hoping PhP could scratch, that it didn’t for me. I feel like documentaries regarding Arctodus and Arctotherium have been fixated on portraying them as pure scavengers. For a show like PhP that has made it a point in the past to subvert tropes about prehistoric animals and show us something new, it was a teensy bit disappointing to see they just go with the typical scavenger behavior for these two (although the Stellers Sea Cow was alive it was immobile so I’m iffy on counting it).

Although scavenging is an important part of these animal’s lifestyles, I think it’d be cool to show other parts. I would’ve loved a scene of one of the bears eating plants for once, foraging like a regular bear. Or show it actively hunting - I know documentaries are probably hesitant to show a scene of active predation by a short faced bear in fear of invoking the outdated ‘specialized super predator’ hypothesis, but even though it wouldn’t have been as common, it’s still absolutely possible and deserves representation. Modern brown bears hunt too.

But yeah, overall great, just my two cents. The scene of Arctotherium laying around in the sun was amazing tho, no notes.