Prehistoric Planet: Coasts - First Thoughts and Review (spoiler-free)

I saw the first episode of Apple TV+'s Prehistoric Planet last night, focusing on marine life along the coasts of the time.


WAS.

EXCELLENT.

From the visuals, cinematography, to the accuracy, it was everything I hoped for and more.

Without getting into spoiler territory, a basic overview of the ep is something like this:
  • A father T. rex (which the palaeosphere has all but named Hank) goes for a swim with his babies to show them how to hunt.
  • Pterosaurs in Morocco fly to survive and escape one another.
  • The kiwi plesiosaur Tuarangisaurus living a social life together.
  • Mosasaurus hoffmani in Europe prepare to mate, by both getting a skin treatment from fish and fighting.
  • Ammonites in the Western Seaway court with bioluminescent light shows.
The visual effects are utterly astounding: the CG is incredibly detailed, and . There's even a few puppets here for some particular baby pterosaurs known as Alcione, or at least I think so: CG's so good I can't tell. The cinematography is also top-notch: it makes use of sweeping shots that really capture the nature documentary feel and shines a majestic light on even the most seemingly-unimportant life. They even blend modern lifeforms in like baby sea turtles and fish seemlessly.

The behaviour of its subjects is also great. All the animals act as animals should and never as monsters or too much like us (the cinematography and story does that instead). I particularly love the way a Mosasaurus acts in its respective sequences, going after a juvenile of another species rather then an adult (won't reveal who). Speculative behaviour is also present, and I love it: for instance, pterosaurs that normally eat fish opportunistically hunt the Alcione, or more notably, the Rexes swimming. Its quite possible they could do so, as thy show in a bonus feature, and ir reminds me of a Joschua Knüppe piece.
belongs to Joschua Knüppe


Hans Zimmer is scoring and David Attenborough is narrating. That's all that needs to be said. I love both the narration and the score, what I'm saying

I love how dinosaurs are not the focus here, Hank the T. rex and a bird aside. Pterosaurs, marine reptiles, and even ammonites are the ones in focus here. There's also a thematic focus on the circle of life, if in a non-linear way: one segment has birth, another has adolescence, then adulthood, and the last has death. Not sure if this was intentional, but its a cool touch.

Just about my only complaint for the episode is that the globe-spanning nature of it meant it felt unfocused. I would have preferred a single location, perhaps the WIS. Oh, and it doesn't credit the VFX artists. I mean, really? They're the ones who made the breathtaking stuff! Add them, guys!

Overall, Coasts was a great start to Prehistoric Planet, and its rather fitting the largest biome on the planet is featured first.
  • Accuracy - 10/10
  • Aging - 9/10
  • Presentation - 10/10
  • Visuals - 10/10
  • Music - 10/10
  • Storytelling - 8/10
  • Rewatchability - 10/10
I recommend you get Apple TV+ just for PrePlanet and support it. Can't wait for the rest this week! Off to watch it now, in fact.

EDIT: Also, no, I'm not going to do the same thing for the rest of the eps. Rather, I'll rank them like what I did for Walking With Dinosaurs.

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