Life on Our Planet

Life on Our Planet has built a reputation that precedes it, and right now it is all available in Australia on Netflix, and in the US on Netflix. Morgan Freeman leads a cast that brings something genuine to every episode. What sets Life on Our Planet apart from the dozens of similar shows is hard to pin down in a single sentence — it is partly the writing, partly the performances, partly the way it commits to its premise without flinching. The kind of documentary that changes how you see things: that is the shorthand, but it undersells how well Life on Our Planet executes on it. An audience of 201 has voted with their time — and their score reflects a run without many weak episodes. The streaming access means you can form your own opinion tonight, without any barrier to entry.

Originally commissioned by Netflix, Life on Our Planet quickly became exactly the kind of show that viewers rearrange their evenings for. Life's extraordinary journey to conquer, adapt and survive on Earth across billions of years comes alive in this groundbreaking nature docuseries. It aired in 2023. Documentary television at this level requires access that is hard to get and storytelling that does justice to it — Life on Our Planet has both. The consistency across the run is what elevates it — not every episode is the best, but none of them are a reason to stop watching.

Documentary fans who value serious journalism and strong storytelling will find Life on Our Planet essential — if Prehistoric Planet is on your list, move Life on Our Planet to the top. Not background viewing. The access the production gets is remarkable, and the storytelling does full justice to it — there is no sense of footage being stretched to fill episodes that have nothing new to say. The runtime is exactly right for the scale of the subject being examined. The kind of documentary that makes you feel informed rather than manipulated — a harder balance to strike than most documentary makers acknowledge.