‘Our Great National Parks’ Is the Chill Show We All Desperately Need Right Now

With Our Great National Parks, Barack Obama has fulfilled his destiny as “a man with a calming voice.” The former President is now the narrator for a nature documentary on Netflix, and it’s exactly the cup of warm chamomile tea we need during this age of never-ending stress.

From the producers of Blue Planet II comes this gloriously predictable new show. Our Great National Parks is exactly what you expect it to be, no more and no less. It’s a beautifully shot docuseries about animals and nature that offers some interesting insights about national parks. That’s all. In fact, it’s the docuseries’ commitment to being exactly what it is that makes it so lovely.

If there is any differentiating factor about Our Great National Parks it would be in its transparency. All nature documentaries, whether explicitly or not, make the same plea. As the BBC unveils breathtaking landscapes and jaw-dropping footage of lizards escaping from certain death, these documentaries also argue that we need to save our planet. Those words are rarely explicitly said by Sir David Attenborough, but that message of environmentalism is ingrained in every close up and tracking shot.

For his part, Obama makes this subtext into text. At the end of “A World of Wonder”, Obama looks directly at the camera and says, “The fabric of wild space connects to our lives in so many ways. It’s up to us to protect it, to care for it, and to pass on these wild spaces to the next generation.” That’s as clear of a thesis as you can get.

But other than that clearer than usual message, Our Great National Parks is exactly what you expect. Its first episode spends a good amount of time following the elusive Decken’s sifaka, an endangered lemur native to Madagascar that can be found in the Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. In order to survive, the tribe of lemurs have to navigate their way across a maze of rocky spires. The camera focuses on one mother in particular, noting how the extra weight of the baby clinging to her neck could spell certain doom for their journey. Later, an episode set in Tsavo, Kenya sets its sights on a pod of hippopotamuses. Rather than the far away footage that characterizes most nature specials, the camera is so close it feels in danger of being crushed. It’s a segment that captures both the grace and the power of these massive, mysterious creatures.

Those are the sorts of stories you want from a good nature documentary. And that’s exactly what Our Great National Parks provides. Sure, the camerawork isn’t quite as revolutionary as anything out of the Planet Earth or Blue Planet franchises, but does that really matter?

At the end of the day, you want a nature documentary that looks gorgeous while teaching you something you didn’t know about nature. That’s exactly the promise Our Great National Parks keeps. And you know what? Sometimes it’s nice to have something removed from grand promises or secret twists. It’s nice to have something that’s just itself. Chances are, it will even make you want to check out some national parks away from your couch.

Watch Our Great National Parks on Netflix