Imagine a prime-time drama in which a detective pounces on a suspect, tears his skin off with his teeth, then proceeds to have unbridled sex with his partner. It would never happen — unless the cops were lions.
The nature documentary, once considered a cuddly alternative to a trip to the zoo, has become the most graphic and gratuitous genre in entertainment.
Even PBS’s venerable “Nature” series is getting into the act. In the appropriately titled episode “Moment of Impact,” we get a blow-by-blow analysis of how a lion brings down a wildebeest. Discovery Channel’s “Life,” the 11-part series that debuted last week, could have just as easily been called “Death,” as it spotlights everything from a Komodo dragon poisoning a water buffalo to a Venus’ flytrap luring in its prey.
Animal Planet has seen its audience grow ever since it rebranded itself two years ago and began developing shows like “Fatal Attractions” and “River Monsters,” in which human beings interact with deadly beasts, sometimes with disastrous results.
“We think the audience is ready for the new, gutsy, compelling stories that we’re telling now, stories that happen on those margins where the lives of humans and animals intersect,” said Marjorie Kaplan, president of Animal Planet Media.
“It’s the place where we humans get to remember and get to re-experience that primal flicker in ourselves that we do not want to see extinguished,” she said. New high-definition cameras that can do everything from shooting 3,000 frames a second to slipping into tiny burrows have made it easier for filmmakers to capture their subjects in more intimate — and more ferocious — ways.
“It really has to do with the extraordinary technology that is available to filmmakers,” said Janet Hess, research editor for “Nature.” “We’re now able to catch a bat in the middle of the night catching an insect with his feet. These are things you’ve never seen before.”
Geoff Daniels, senior vice president of development and production for the National Geographic channels, also makes a great character witness for the defense.
“I think there is an aspect of the daily drama of survival in the natural world, but it’s not something we intend to bang on ruthlessly,” he said. “We’re not going to exploit that narrow form of programming. We want to inform, we want to entertain and we want to make great television, but there’s got to be a point to it as well.”
Modern nature documentaries would be limited to science classes if it wasn’t for their ability to appeal to our inner barbarians — and that’s the bloody truth.
