Posting challenge 8/17: Rec: Baby Animals in the Wild

[magnetic_pole]

So I've had this odd, recurring stomach bug for about two weeks now, which in the end isn't a terrible thing--the semester hasn't started yet, I can afford to spend some time on the couch, and I have managed to watch so much television, you wouldn't believe. All of Broadchurch (excellent first and third seasons, much love for Olivia Colman); all of Grantchester (the most pastiche-y show I've ever seen, every cozy British mystery series trope I could think of wrapped up in a single show); whole stretches of Star Trek Voyager and Deep Space Nine; the madcap, infectious Chewing Gum; and the best one of them all: Baby Animals in the Wild (on Netflix, ten hours total).

Click through, scroll down to that little spotted fawn, and watch the trailer. Go ahead, I'll wait for you.

This series is the antidote to everything difficult in your life right now, flist. It's twenty half-hour episodes, organized in ten pairs devoted to different habitats. Forest babies, beach babies, grassland babies, desert babies, wetland babies, mountain babies, jungle babies, snow babies. In the first episode, "Morning," you watch the babies and their parents wake up (or, for the nocturnal crew, settle down to sleep) and feed. The second episode, "Afternoon," takes you along while they play, hide, suckle, practice chewing, practice pouncing, and eventually settle down for the night. Tiny alligators break out of their eggs. Baby koalas cling to their mothers. Chicks open their beaks so wide for food. A spindly foal stands for the first time. Bear cubs devour the salmons their mother's brought. Gibbons bounce. And they all eat so hungrily and sleep so peacefully.

If you haven't seen this series yet, give it a try! I guarantee your soul will feel better. :)

Any other recommendations, flist? Shows you've been enjoying recently?

Comments

[out_there]

The Handmaids Tale, which was impressive and intense and intriguing. Yet also creepy and a little too possible, so not good if you're feeling too sensitive to current political issues or sexual slavery or how awful people can be. I mean, it's good -- really good and it stays with you afterwards -- but it's a horrifying dystopian future.

[magnetic_pole]

Yes, yes! I actually watched The Handmaid's Tale earlier in the summer, and you're exactly right: intense and intriguing and creepy and a little too possible. (I saw a comic recently joking they were preparing for a Pence presidency by watching it.) But it was actually easier to watch during the current Trump administration than House of Cards, which has always taken a kind of gleeful delight in political corruption and manipulation. At least HT shows how awful it can be.

Thanks for the suggestion, though! :) Are you back home now? Hope re-entry hasn't been too painful. M.

[out_there]

First day back at work today (eurgh). Also back to dieting, so double eurgh.

But at least the break from the cold weather has made the last few weeks of winter easier to bear.

While I like House of Cards, none of the characters are especially likeable. They're not good people (even the ones who seem good don't keep their promises, etc, etc). And it tends to show my secret belief about politicians: that so much effort goes into navigating political waters that very little leadership actually gets done.

Whereas the Handmaids Tale gives us definite heroes to care about. As terrible as the situation is, it's still fighting and struggling and finding ways to survive and occasionally even finding little victories.

[shadowycat]

I'm sorry you're not feeling well! Hopefully you'll be over this annoying bug soon. At least it gave you a chance to get some rest and watch a bit of distracting TV. Baby Animals in the Wild sounds charming. :D

[magnetic_pole]

Thanks, S. I think I'm on the mend now--I had three full meals yesterday, hurrah! And the baby animals really did distract me and make me feel better. Do you think this is my biological clock kicking in belatedly? I just see the little things, especially when they're imitating their parents clumsily, and my heart melts. M.

[shadowycat]

We're wired to love and protect babies, I think. Animal or human, small, cute, and helpless, pushes all the right buttons for us. :D

[magnetic_pole]

True! Though lately it's just veeeeeery intense for me. :) M.

[therealsnape]

So sorry to hear about the illness. Not quite the way you want to spend the vacation, even though lots of TV can be fun.

If you can find them: the detective series VERA, for the brilliant part of the main character. A woman to love.
And there's a mini-series, Capital which I thought excellent. About a street in London where prices have gone up over the years, so now there's some old ones who've lived there all their lives, a few Yuppies, the corner shop - all sorts of lives and stories that play out. Excellent acting, by Gemma (Poppy Pomfrey) Jones amongst others.

Isn't Grantchester a peach of a series? The very thing for a lying on the couch session.

[magnetic_pole]

Feeling much better now, TRS, thank you.

I love the sound of both of those! Unfortunately, they are both on subscription services here--you need pay for something called "BritBox" first. I'm going to bookmark both and see if there's a time when I want to pay for a service for a month or two and enjoy them. Heaven knows I love my British television.

And I loved Grantchester! (Didn't mean "pastiche-y" to sound negative.) At first I was a bit suspicious--"This is all awfully familiar"-- and then I realized that was the part of the premise, and I should just sit back and enjoy. I'd actually never watched or read Father Brown, so the vicar-y bit were new to me. :) M.

ETA: Oh! I didn't watch this recently, but did you see the new Jane Tennison prequel? Not especially good, I didn't think, but my love for Tennison carries me through small details like that.

[therealsnape]

It seems as if there are currently full episodes of Vera on youtube.

Here's a link.

You may not get things in order, but just try one episode to see whether it's something you'd want more of. I'm a huge fan of this, because of the brilliant performance by the actress playing Vera. It's the voice - rather high-pitched, and the way she calls everyone 'pet' and 'love' - gives a totally wrong impression, because underneath there's this highly intelligent copper. Also, in later seasons, there's a part for a woman in a wheelchair, and it's not about the wheelchair, it's about a highly intelligent researcher who happens to be handicapped. Yes, I can wax lyrical about this for hours.

Just give it a try.

Haven't seen any Jane Tennison yet, but I'll look for it! Thanks for the rec. I've heard about it, but I just didn't see it.

[magnetic_pole]

Oh, fabulous! I'll watch it tonight, then. Thank you.

The Prime Suspect prequel was called "Prime Suspect 1973" in the UK and "Prime Suspect: Tennison" here in the US and was shown on our public television channel here back in...June? (Here's the US website for it.) It's not especially good, as I said, but for me it fell into the "Fantastic Beasts" category: I'll put up with a lot to step back into that world again. Jane Tennison looms large in my pantheon of tough, competent, interesting middle-aged women.

[semielliptical]

Aww, the baby animals trailer! It looks very soothing.

I have been watching Shetland, which is a decent mystery series. The setting is lovely but also rather melancholy. I've also been listing to the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maturin series on audiobook. It's a nice change from current events podcasts when I would rather listen to something escapist and familiar (I've read all the books at least twice.)

Hope you get over the bug soon!

[magnetic_pole]

Aha! Shetland's available on Netflix. Hm. Thank you. Did you see TRS's suggestion of Vera above? It looks like they're both based on novels by Ann Cleeves.

Glad to hear you're enjoying the Patrick O'Brien again. I've been thinking about re-reading a lot recently--how comforting it's been for me over the past few months, while the world seems to be falling apart. Sounds like it might be the same for you. Hm. I might ask folks about that in a different post.

I love that tea icon, S. Off to make myself some more! M.

[therealsnape]

Replying to M's comment here, so you'll both get the notification. Yes, they're by the same author, and I love Shetland, too. This series Vera has the same melancholy, also great settings (although the Isles are pretty spectacular) but I totally love the character of Vera. I like the main character of Shetland well enough, but Vera - she's great.

Do you know that series as well, and how do they compare to you?
TRS

[splix]

Serious question - does any harm come to any of the babies? I can't handle that right now. :(

ETA: I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well! I hope you're perkier now.

[magnetic_pole]

No, not at all! It's an odd series, actually--there's a *little* science behind it, but nothing too rigorous. The voice-over narration explains how long the animals gestate, how old they are when they ween, whether one of both parents are involved in raising them, how parents hide their babies, how they camouflage themselves, which animals will prey on them and which animals they'll eat, but it's all very bloodless and peaceful and cute. The most tension comes when a cub can't climb a rock or a newborn horse can't find its feet. :)

And thank you. I'm back on my feet today, feeling normal again, thank goodness. M.

[secretsolitaire]

That baby animal series sounds like a good antidote to the world as it is today!

[magnetic_pole]

Seriously. I turned off the news at "many sides" and turned the baby animals back on. M.