Series: Life

When I can't sleep, or if I'm sick, or otherwise need to kill some "quiet time" I watch an episode or two of the BBC Earth series "Life."  Filmed in high definition, played back on Blu-ray, it's non-stop astonishment.

The discs include a short "making of" documentary of each episode, which is even more astonishing than the content.  The months, sometimes years (!) spent setting up particular shots or scenes, the incredible danger and inhospitable environments, the luck both bad- and good- endured by the crews.

David Attenborough narrates.  Unlike many documentaries, he is perfectly understandable (on headphones) without subtitles (though they are available).

The music is varied and tasteful and contributes.  Sound design -- added bubbles or rustling noises or animal cries -- are appropriate and nicely dubbed in stereo. Even subtle humor sometimes is snuck in: the segment on Venus Flytraps has tiny burps dubbed in as the flowers reopen after a kill.

Extensive use of time lapse photography and slow motion photography illuminate trends and action impossible to discern in normal time.

Pacing is fast, almost too fast sometimes, with interesting shots and story lines rushing by as fast as you can absorb them.

And of course the visuals -- ah, to die for.

It doesn't get any better than this.

I've got a BBC Earth series, "Frozen Planet." Same properties: high definition, Blu-ray, "making of" documentaries, and of course, David Attenborough.

Really fascinating and extremely enjoyable stuff.

There's one tracking shot of about a minute long in the episode entitled "Plants" where the camera pulls back through an English forest as all sorts of plants grow, bloom and wither during the time the camera goes by. At the end the camera turns to follow a vine as it grows about 5 feet along the top of a wall (with all kinds of stuff happening in the background.

It's a jaw-dropping shot. In the bonus features they detail how this shot was done. It took two years.

The other thing I picked up at Half Price yesterday was an unopened 4-DVD set of the BBC's "Blue Planet." Just watched the first of eight episodes.

Fabulous. Filming underwater is some of the hardest filming there is, and the shots of the sardine wholes, seal families, killer whales hunting, blue whales et cetera were just astonishing.

I watched the "Blue Planet" series on BBC. Fascinating.

I now have the following:

• BBC - The Blue Planet (2001) : eight episodes on four DVDs (392 minutes)
  
• BBC - Planet Earth (2007) : eleven episodes on four DVDs (550 minutes)
  
• BBC - Life (2010) : eleven episodes on 4 DVDs (556 minutes)
  
• BBC : Human Planet (2011) : nine episodes on three DVDs (400 minutes)

I shall begin looking for Frozen Planet. What else is out there?

Got it.

Plus about seven movies and the Secret Policeman's Balls and Romance for a Double Bass and Fawlty Towers and Brazil and Fsih Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures.