Rivers Lifeblood

Rivers Lifeblood runs through a comprehensive set of details about plants and animals whose lives are organized together around the forward movement of rivers around the world. Similar to other nature documentaries, Rivers Lifeblood's quality is utterly dazzling with respect to its video and audio elements. The slow motion and focused sounds of the riverbed make the viewer feel legitimately enmeshed in the river's world. Some particularly astonishing examples of "How did they catch that?" moments are when river floods knock down trees in real time on camera, and also when a tiny fish species is shown and heard gathering pebbles and rocks on the river bottom to bivouac against a swift current.

The one strange part of Rivers Lifeblood compared to other nature documentaries is that it rarely specifies which river it's discussing, or how many rivers around the world share in the phenomena discussed, at any given moment. Because of this, it'll probably come across as unfocused in the eyes of biologist parents or of viewers who want to learn about any one river specifically. And, as is the case with all other nature documentaries, Rivers Lifeblood might be boring to viewers who aren't already interested in biology and related subjects. In the end, however, the documentary works wonders both as a curiosity-igniting summary of general river-related information and as an audiovisual spectacle.