Just like last season, we also get a weird episode this season. Ok, it's not that weird. It's only one segment that feels out of place in an episode called "Swamps". I guess the area used to be a swamp according to the narration, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
This episode goes back to the world-hopping format where each segment is in a different country. The first segment doesn't mention the country by name and featured an unnamed baby azhdarchid pterosaur and a new animal Shamosuchus, and Shamosuchus is only found in Mongolia. It's silly that they don't always mention the location by name throughout the series. Some of the places such as Madagascar are mentioned by name in the narration. I think letting the viewers know the location would really help them get a better understanding of the complex biomes within each location. I had to do a little research to figure out it was Mongolia again in the first segment. Cause today's Mongolia is a lush swamp with water and plants unlike yesterday's desert wasteland.
As always, we get a cast of new and returning animals in this episode. People who love crocodyliform will get a new creature, the previously mentioned Shamosuchus. I think the star of today's episode is definitely Beelzebufo the Devil Toad. It was in the last season for a few seconds, but this episode gave it the spotlight, and it's just an incredibly charming animal. I love its big chonky body lumbering and rolling around and dealing with some pesky giant Rapetosaurus while trying to find a mate. Also a special shoutout to Austroraptor in this episode for showcasing a piscivore, and also having a confusing name. This is what I mean before about telling the viewers the location they're seeing, cause the name Austroraptor would problem make you think it's from Australia, but it's actually from Argentina.
One of the things I felt held back the show in the last season was not having some nature documentary gore. I'm not asking for tons of blood and guts, just some blood and meat like you would see in any nature documentary. The show does have a lot of death with plenty of animals getting killed and babies being eaten, but other than a few drops of blood in the last season, it was extremely tame. They were trying to reference recent research on how T. rex dismembered a Triceratops carcass last season but they also wanted to keep a G rating so it felt pretty half-assed. At least I think that scene was trying to reference the research. With that in mind, I think they succeeded this season in showing a Tyrannosaurus hunt. Clever camera work and low lighting help to keep the kill in view while being just violent enough without crossing the line. Some of that is also thanks to the sound of crunching bone that you hear when the Edmontosaurus was bitten by the rexes. We finally get to see a large land predator hunt in this series. Not getting to see a Tyrannosaurus hunt on screen was my biggest disappointment from last season. I've been saying on other social media platforms how awesome it would be to see T. rex ambush its prey at night. I was hoping they would do it this season. They delivered!
Lastly, the weird part of this episode is featuring a bone-dry landscape in an episode called Swamps. I mean, according to the narration, it used to be a swamp, but now it's dried up. So I guess that technically counts? Whatever, it's just nitpicking. It's not the end of the world. I just thought it was kinda funny.
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