Parents' Guide to

Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty

By Martin Brown, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Meerkat family drama shows some animal violence.

TV BBC America Educational 2021
Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty Poster Image

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What's the Story?

Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty introduces us to Swift, the leader and matriarch of her family. After a drought that devastated the meerkat population, Swift has rebuilt her family back to 15 meerkats, including some tiny baby meerkats who are just seeing their first daylight. Rise of the Dynasty follows Swift's family and their surrounding wildlife community, including the neighboring Hakuna Matata meerkat clan, as they hunt food, fend off predators, and just maybe find some meerkat romance along the way.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Anybody who has even sat and watched activity at a dog park for a few minutes could tell you that there's plenty of drama to be found in the animal kingdom. Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty works so well because it matches the scale of the drama to the scale of the creatures it follows. The epic pageantry that usually accompanies nature documentaries about flamingos or alligators or lions is reduced to something closer to reality TV. But Rise of the Dynasty still provides as many, if not more, insights into the natural order as its more majestic sister documentaries. Watching meerkats caring for their young, interacting with other families, or "snake-mobbing" to collectively fend off a predator is not only compelling and fun, but reveals tiny ways that observing nature can remind viewers of their own lives.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about meerkats. How familiar are you with meerkats? Where else do you know them from? What did you learn about meerkats from Meerkat Manor?

  • What makes Swift's family an interesting subject for this type of show? Which "characters" do you find yourself drawn to? What sorts of problems do the meerkats encounter? How do they overcome them?

  • What are some routines that the meerkats have in place? How do they handle raising their young? How do they deal with predators? How does teamwork help them survive?

TV Details

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