By Isabella Purdy
British Broadcasting Company (BBC) is a powerhouse that has brought us “Doctor Who”, “Sherlock”, “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency”, “Killing Eve”, “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth”. BBC is known for the two latter shows, which aired respectively in September of 2001 and March of 2006. They were groundbreaking at the time and lead to many spinoffs and eventually, sequels of “Blue Planet” and “Planet Earth” were made in 2017 and 2016.
The latest installation in the massive natural franchise is “Seven Worlds, One Planet”, a spinoff of BBC Earth that focuses on each of the seven continents one at a time, starting with Australia. This series is beautiful and features a behind the scenes look for every episode showing the great lengths the BBC team go to in order to catch these incredible shots.
Obviously, this series was shot before the devastating fires, but placing Australia first was no mistake. Neither was having Robert Redford and David Attenborough on the show begging people to donate to a specific organization when the episode aired.
I wasn’t expecting them to do the same for North America, but once again, David Attenborough chimes in with his legendary voice once again asking viewers to donate to a different cause, specific to the continent.
While it is beautiful to watch the show, Attenborough doesn’t shy away from the reality of our planet is facing now. It’s dying and the natural world is suffering. It is shown, plain as day, when a polar bear is struggling to swim after hours of trying to find enough ice to support its weight. While viewers can ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over the cute animals and stunning scenery, there is a dark side that this series and franchise has never been afraid to show.
That’s why I love this series the most. It celebrates what we have, while at the same time, warns us of what’s to come based off of what’s already evident if we don’t change our ways. This series is perfect for everyone, beautiful and fascinating to watch and teaches us viewers a powerful lesson of changing for the better.
“Seven Worlds, One Planet” airs Saturday nights on BBC America.
