Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Predators’ On Netflix, A Nature Docuseries Told From The Predators’ Point Of View

Predators is a nature docuseries that goes to different locales and shows how the world’s best predatory species survive. These species have to fight multiple factors in order to make it in their harsh environments, from protecting their territory from invaders, fending off other predators, surviving drought and other conditions where food becomes scarce, and managing changing climate patterns.

PREDATORS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes of various predators flash across the screen as narrator Tom Hardy says, “Predators across the planet. Unmatched in strength. Speed. Strategy. Stealth. And teamwork. But staying on top is never easy.”

The Gist: The first episode takes place in the Serengeti in Tanzania, following two cheetahs, Luka and Kovu, as they defend territory they have fought hard to control. When we first see them, prey is plentiful, with zebra, wildebeest and gazelle roaming the savannah. But as the years-long drought in the area continues, Luka and Kovu find their territory threatened by the Solaros, four brothers who are strong but still follow their mom into hunts. There isn’t enough food to go around, unless a massive migrating herd of all three mammals arrives; right now they’re 100 miles to the north.

Luka and Kovu can’t rely on the rains coming at their usual time anymore, due to climate change, and when a wildfire destroys their territory, they have to look for a new area free of other predators like lions and hyenas. Will they be able to find a new spot and hold on until the migration arrives?

Other predators depicted in the series are lions, polar bears, polar bears, wild dogs and pumas.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Predators has a bit more of a tense, action-oriented tone than other Netflix nature series like Our Planet, but the visuals are similar.

Our Take: The tone and pacing of Predators is the key to what makes it a compelling watch. The cinematography is spectacular, as you might expect from a series like this. Hardy’s narration provides lots of tension without sounding foreboding. The producers and directors do a good job of personalizing these predators by giving them memorable names — after all, who would name a group of cheetahs “the Solaro Brothers” without the intention of invoking a particular human image?

But what the series does well is show is just how much adversity these predators need to overcome to survive. It’s not just scenes of these species chasing down helpless prey and tearing their guts out. In the case of big cats like cheetahs, they are obligate carnivores; they need to eat meat to survive because it not only provides them with nutrition but hydration (can you tell we own housecats?). And the two cheetahs that are featured in the first episode have to overcome a whole lot in order to gain the territory they controlled.

A particularly telling scene in the cheetah episode was how the Solaro brothers still needed their mother — female cheetahs hunt by themselves, while males hunt in pairs or groups — to hunt for them, and during the height of the drought, one of them just collapsed due to starvation. Despite how tough these brothers are, one of them just didn’t have what he needed to survive. But Kovu and Luka do. That’s a dynamic that we don’t see all that often in nature shows. It’s one thing to show hunters hunt, but it’s completely something else to show them surviving when there’s nothing to hunt.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Because both Kovu and Luka are able to mate with the same female (another thing we learned about all felines at some point), we see cheetah kittens running around while Hardy says, “There is now no question the cheetahs’ apex status is guaranteed here for many years to come.”

Sleeper Star: There are some really compelling closeups of the cheetahs being able to subdue and break the necks of large prey like zebras. Also, drone footage of them chasing down fast prey like hares makes you almost feel like you’re running with them.

Most Pilot-y Line: There is a lot of wildebeest “moos” thrown around as we see the herd try to make it across a crocodile-filled river. We’re not sure if that’s native sound or thrown in in post-production.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Predators works because it shows just how resilient and tough the predatory species that are filmed really are.

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.