My love for documentaries, especially nature ones, is probably quite well known now. When it comes to nature documentaries to me David Attenborough will always reign king when it comes to output and presenting, but there have been numerous documentaries without his involvement that are just as great in their own way while not quite being milestones. There have been quite a number of narrators/presenters that do a more than worthy job on their own merits.
New Zealand is always a pleasure to see anywhere and Sam Neill has such a comforting listening to for hours sort of voice, so 'New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands' immediately had me sold. On the whole, the series was well done and there is a lot to recommend about it. It does have to be admitted though that there are better documentaries about, ones that don't have length and pacing issues and explore their content in more depth. 'New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands' is still well worth watching and a must for anybody interested in New Zealand, but it didn't wow me.
Beginning with the good things, it looks absolutely beautiful. The New Zealand scenery stunning and photographed exquisitely. The music didn't strike me as melodramatic, too jaunty or intrusive.
While the writing for the narration didn't quite have the surprise factor of other documentaries, it was still educational and was engagingly and accessibly written. Nothing was heavy-handed, corny or patronising. 'New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands' is very informative and did find myself learning a good deal, while also balancing the familiar and not so familiar well. The content has good variety. Neill's narration delivery is as comforting as expected.
The series isn't perfect having said that. It could have done with being one or two episodes longer and all three episodes could have had longer durations. The series did feel too short and all three episodes tries to pack in a lot of content and it ends up feeling too much and too rushed.
Even though interesting and educational, the series could have gone into a good deal more detail. Some of it felt jumpy structurally.
Overall however, well done and worth watching. Just not a must. 7/10.
