My Thoughts on Prehistoric Planet Season 2 Episode 1

So, here we are, a year later, back with more Prehistoric Planet. I really didn't think we'd get a second season of this fantastic series, so to see a season 2 was suddenly announced out of nowhere just 2 or 3 months before the premiere was the biggest surprise. Does season 2 episode 1 live up to my expectations?

The first episode is about islands, and once again, the show hops all over the world. Though Madagascar does get a lengthy segment in this episode. We can also see Madagascar in future episodes too. The Antarctic was also featured in this episode. I kinda wish there was more focus on the Antarctic simply because it's such a rarely seen environment when we're talking about dinosaurs or the late Cretaceous. There was that bit in Alaska in season 1, but we need to see more dinosaurs in frozen environments.

Just like the previous season, they manage to keep things realistic even though a lot of what we see is speculative at best. Nature is cruel, and the show doesn't hold back on death. But it also adds real tension to the episode when I was watching the Zalmoxes try to escape from the Mosasurs. I really wasn't sure if he would make it.

The music and CGI are once again top-notch. I really couldn't tell whether the baby Adalatherium babies were real mammal babies filmed as stand-ins or CGI. Cause we know in the previous season, they had footage of real fish in the show. It's a clever way to save money. Those baby Adalatherium were just so real, I can't wrap my mind around it. Also, a special shoutout to the floating Zalmoxes island. It's a small piece of floating land that looks cozy and beautiful. I'm pretty sure this island was real and not CGI. I want to recreate it in Prehistoric Kingdom.

One of the reasons the show was able to give us another season so quickly with such amazing CGI is thanks to reusing creatures from the previous season. There's nothing wrong with that. I think some of the animals could use more screen time anyway. But the show also gives us plenty of new animals such as Imperobator and Morrosaurus. We also finally get to see crocodylomorphs and mammals in this episode. Both of these were MIA in the last season. I know fans really wanted the former. There will be plenty of old and new animals this season, and I'm personally hoping to see more Therizinosaurus this season.

I think the other way this season was able to save time and money is, unfortunately, shorter episodes. Each episode is still around 41 minutes, but the last 7 minutes of this episode is footage of Darren Naish and Mark Witton talking about the science behind the Azhdarchid. I mean, there's nothing wrong with explaining the science, but a lot of this stuff was kept as specials in the last season and doesn't actually take up time in a regular episode. This season, we get footage of people talking and also old clips. I'm hoping this is only for this episode, but somehow, I doubt that's the case. So that is definitely disappointing. Talking heads or not, I really did enjoy this episode. It's more of what made the first season so wonderful. This is another love letter to dinosaurs and other creatures living at the end of the age of dinosaurs.