Netflix explores "Alien Worlds"

[Melpardus]

Saw the trailer for this being shared around my online science circles a few weeks ago and it seemed interesting enough to warrant a watch; figured I'd mention it here for anyone interested now that it's available. It's a speculative astrobiology [mini(?)]series where the show presents a hypothetical exoplanet, describes some basic conditions of this planet, and then gives you a few alien species that could exist there. I've usually enjoyed these shows the few times they've been produced with a decent budget; I grew up on Discovery Channel's Wayne Barlow-inspired Alien Planet from 2005, which I still highly recommend; it's got a full narrative and presents the most in-depth look at not only the various ecologies of a single hypothetical exoplanet, but also how AI might function in a space exploration scenario.

After having watched the first of the four episodes, Alien Worlds though seems much more in the spirit of National Geographic's Extraterrestrial, which had two episodes with each focusing on a single planet and a few of the creatures living in a specific region of said planet. It's about a 60/40 split between scientists talking about concepts as applies to life on Earth that get extrapolated to their hypothesized aliens, and CGI footage of the 'actual' aliens themselves going about their lives. Alien Worlds is actually a bit more broad in terms of the scope of its topics, and because of how slow-paced the show is it feels a little sparse at points. For instance, they spend a decent amount of time talking about how falcons hunt or give a very long and loose explanation of sexual selection to explain a fairly mild case of sexual dimorphism in one of their creatures, but they never go into the actual anatomies of some of their aliens to explain the reasoning behind the designs or really delve into ecological dynamics. I have further issues with it but hopefully the other three episodes improve on or avoid these various problems, but we'll see.

I'd still recommend giving it a chance, since someone completely uninitiated to astrobiology and the various relevant concepts might find it as a decent entry point to any of those, even if it's not exactly the most engaging presentation ever and might leave much to be desired.

 

[Flash525]

I watched the first episode of this yesterday, wasn't exactly overwhelmed, but it's intriguing what the universe could potentially hold for us.

 

[Melpardus]

I've since finished the rest of the series and was inspired to make a review video, so here it is for anybody who might care. Overall it's a pretty mediocre show with good production value, but still on the "harmless, mildly educational" side.

 

[squeekness]

It was okay, can't say it really blew me away. Lots of speculation because the truth is we don't really know what is actually out there.

 

[Melpardus]

Well yeah, the whole point of the show was supposed to be to provide some grounded speculative looks at hypothetical exoplanets and what could be out there. One of the other things that surprised me (that I didn't mention in my review) is how relatively shallow the show's planetary offerings were. Like, not one look at any marine/aquatic fauna in any of the four episodes, nor stuff like some of Jupiter and Saturn's moons which have oceans of methane that could sustain their own uniquely evolved ecosystems.

 

[Incarnadine]

I gave the show a chance, but it wasn't very interesting to me.
There's a good show on Amazon called Cosmic Vistas I found to be much more interesting and the subject varies from episode to episode.