Ancient Yellowstone
By Davis Cook,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Science-adjacent miniseries lies dormant in most respects.
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Ancient Yellowstone
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What's the Story?
Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is known for geothermal vents, grizzly bears, wolves, and bison. However, did you know that the park also holds secrets and wildly unique organisms and fossils that could hold the keys towards further discovery in the areas of alien and ancient life? ANCIENT YELLOWSTONE attempts to explain how, using three episodes that are each between ten and fifteen minutes in length to collect a list-like procession of talking heads, dramatic shots of the park, glimpses into laboratories, computer animations, and artistic renderings of places far away and long ago, all backed by narration and dramatic pulses of music.
Is It Any Good?
Ancient Yellowstone begins its three mini series admirably, providing a summation of the ways in which many people know about Yellowstone already, and what secrets it might hold below the surface of its unique geography, fossils, and animal and plant life.
However, as the miniseries' episodes continue, it becomes apparent that the superficially "cool" nature of the possibilities referred to above-- the episodes' titles are 'Alien Life', Frozen Archeology', and 'The Petrified Forest'-- forms the most significant engine behind Ancient Yellowstone's (halting) clickbait-like momentum. The dramatic pulses of music, artistic renderings of science-adjacent items, and interviewees' conjectures that form the miniseries never engage fully with any more information than their most superficial selves. Perhaps Ancient Yellowstone's lack of substance or quality can be summed up in one instance: when a talking head figure refers to the fact that "a famous microbiologist" began studying Yellowstone's thermal vents more closely a few decades ago. There's no excuse for that phrase in any piece of media that purports to share knowledge in any serious way, and in the same way that there's little to no knowledge that the miniseries has to actually share.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how the bacteria and other animals shown in Ancient Yellowstone can look so different from humans yet still worry about some of the same problems (getting enough food, conserving energy, etc.). What are some things that you do throughout the day that these other animals/bacteria do as well?
Why are there so many nature documentaries like this one? What do we gain by making and watching nature documentaries?
How is watching nature documentaries about certain places better and/or worse in your opinion than actually going to them to observe them in real time?
TV Details
- Premiere date: January 1, 2021
- Cast: Joi Shilling
- Network: Max
- Genre: Educational
- Topics: STEM , History , Science and Nature , Space and Aliens , Wild Animals
- TV rating: NR
- Last updated: October 5, 2021
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