Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Chimp Empire’ On Netflix, A Docuseries About The Hierarchy And Rivalries In A Ugandan Chimpanzee Community

Chimp Empire is a four-part docuseries that follows a chimpanzee community in the central part of the Ngogo forest in Uganda. It is one of the largest chimp communities on the planet, and the hierarchy and societal strata that has been set up by these intelligent primates is complex and fascinating to watch.

CHIMP EMPIRE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A mama chimpanzee grooms and takes care of her baby. Narrator Mahershela Ali intones, “Who we are? How did we become the way we are? As humans, we spend our lives trying to understand ourselves. But sometimes it feels like we’re too close to see clearly.”

The Gist: In the first episode, we see the massive, 31-year-old alpha male, Jackson, assert his dominance by swinging and running his way through the thick vegetation and letting everyone know who’s boss. It’s also to let everyone know that he may be getting older, but he’s still dominant. Then there’s the number two in the group, the older Miles. We also meet Abrams, the young number 3 who wants to topple Jackson off his perch. They groom each other as a form of communication; if the higher-ranked chimp turns and grooms back, the lower-ranked chimp ends up with a powerful ally.

Mama chimp Christine takes care of her 6-month-old baby, whom scientists haven’t named yet because they wait for babies to survive a year. While the baby wants to be more independent, Christine and the other mothers have to look out for the male chimps, especially the ones that are higher-ranked and more prone to express their dominance. Christine’s 7-year-old daughter, Nadine, feels neglected now that her baby sister has all her mother’s attention.

We are also introduced to a 14-year-old named Gus, who is shy and awkward and hasn’t formed an alliance with any of the top-ranked males. He tries to ingratiate himself to Abrams by grooming him, but Abrams doesn’t return the courtesy and just wanders off.

The male chimps patrol the borders of their territory, making sure the chimps from the north are not threatening their area. It’s a long and dangerous march, as rival groups are definitely not friends with each other. Even the shy Gus goes with the group. Another male, Pork Pie, decides to peel off and return to the center of the territory by himself. What ends up happening later may shake up the entire group’s existence in their territory.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? There was a chimp-centric docuseries called Meet The Chimps! on Disney+, but Chimp Empire is a lot more serious. Director James Reed is also responsible for Rise Of The Warrior Apes.

Our Take: It’s fascinating to watch chimpanzees live and thrive in the wild, mainly because they are humans’ closest genetic cousins (along with the bonobo), and the way they operate doesn’t feel all that far off from the way we do. Chimp Empire emphasizes this hierarchy in a way that brings those similarities, both with the group and the individuals, into sharp focus.

There’s the top of the heap, all of the sycophants under him that vie for his attention and the attention of those above them, and the rivals who want to knock him off. Chimp society is still very gender driven, but the females of the community are fiercely protective of their children, and are likely disdainful of the shenanigans the top-dog males get into. The safety of their children is paramount, even in the face of the alpha male.

Does that sound a whole hell of a lot different than how human society worked until about a century ago? Not really. And the closeups of the eyes, hands, and faces of the various members of the community show volumes as far as the chimps’ emotional status.

How the scientists who were able to study and name the members of this community, plus the human film crews that seemed to be able to capture the community’s most private moments, is remarkable. It’s especially astonishing when the body of a male (we won’t say who) is found. This male didn’t die of natural causes; he was attacked and killed by rivals. The shots of the other males trying to figure out if their fellow male was alive, the closeups of the flies and butterflies flitting around the body, and the overall look of puzzlement and fear among the males who surround the body makes the whole scene much more palpable than the usual nature death scenes. There’s emotion there, emotion we as humans understand implicitly.

Sex and Skin: Nothing yet, but we can’t imagine we won’t see mating rituals at some point.

Parting Shot: As the chimps surrounding their dead comrade hoot and cry, Ali says, “If a chimp can be killed here, it means this forest kingdom, and all the chimps in it, are unsafe.”

Sleeper Star: Just looking at the forlorn face of the awkward Gus, sitting all alone most of the time, makes us think of the Saturday nights in high school where we were watching The Golden Girls instead of going out with our nonexistent friends.

Most Pilot-y Line: For some reason or another, we either didn’t know or forgot that chimps hunt and eat smaller monkeys in the rainforest. The scenes where a little one got caught and torn apart by the male chimps was tough to watch, even if it’s a natural occurrence.

Our Call: STREAM IT. What sets Chimp Empire apart from other nature documentaries is how it concentrates on how the chimps’ society is structured. That and the access the filmmakers were able to get makes the series very compelling.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.