Night on Earth realizes the unnoticed secrets and systems that occur as the world turns dark. It’s a six – piece nature documentary series, each with its own central theme and location. With stunning, unique visuals and magically poetic commentary, Night on Earth blew me away.
Why Night on Earth?
From Night until Sunset, in cities, the ocean, the plains, jungles, and harsh environments, Night on Earth illustrates the hidden world of animals, only seen after dark. The show delivers a calming yet driving narration by Samira Wiley. The script spins elegant sentences, detailing a dramatic story for each animal(s). That might not be the tone for everyone, though it did captivate me.
In order to produce the visuals, the show uses cameras that are built to take clear and steady shots, despite the low light conditions. The result is stunning cinematography, with heavy dim and cool tones. These are previously unseen shots. Most night photography depicts star-lit nights or urban cityscapes. Night on earth still displays such shots, with gorgeous spinning skies, though it delves so much deeper into the oceans or under canopies. The expectation is that these dim tones would be ‘boring’. The camera work is incredible, using the thrill and mystery of the darkness as a medium to create vivid movement.
There’s a raw beauty with the quiet, yet just as complex interactions that occur at nighttime. Night on Earth displays those, showing both the physical and behavioral adaptations of certain species. One they heavily delve into is the role of the sun and moon on behavior. I especially enjoyed the differences in behavior in response to human traditions and actions. Halloween for example offers a feast to the animals, the documentary showing moose gorging on pumpkins from house to house. In general however, the copious amounts of food waste in garbage cans leaves a feast on its own for nocturnal creatures.
Night on Earth is overall a gorgeous and highly calming series. I’ve seen criticisms of the information, with mistakes in parts of the script. That would be the greatest preventer of watching this show. I’ve also seen mixed reviews on the narration, though that’s more gated to personal preference to Wiley’s tone and inflection. However, I do believe that the excellent camera work is enough of a driver on its own, even with lacking research in certain parts.
