Summary
Netflix’s Absurd Planet had this weird belief that the commentary had to be quirkier than the animals, but it needn’t be — the animals themselves were the selling point.
Netflix series Absurd Planet season 1 was released on Netflix on April 22, 2020.
Remember Dancing with the Birds? The reason that was good to watch and became an experience was because of the quirkiness of the birds. The species’ spoke for themselves with their extravagant dancing. The narration was simple — “Here is a bird doing a triple toe axis”. It didn’t require the narration to be any more than what it was because of what the viewer was seeing. It is entertaining.
Absurd Planet delves into different parts of the world, looking at the world’s most intriguing animals and the whole concept is that it is narrated by quirky animal creatures, as well as “Mother Nature” itself.
But the problem is, the overly quirky narration and meme-approach to documenting these animals are completely unnecessary — call me a party-pooper or a spoilsport, but the documentary is about intriguing animals; the commentary that discusses them does not need to be weird as well. The reasons why these documentaries usually work is because what the camera sees speaks for itself. Absurd Planet took it a step further and wanted to be a full video and audio experience.
Now I understand why Absurd Planet took this direction — the series is labeled as family-feel. However, similar documentaries to this Netflix series are loved by children and adults without all the nonsense behind it.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed with Netflix’s Absurd Planet –– visually it’s funny and interesting to see such creatures that you would never have imagined, but the presentation is woeful.
