Television series
Dynasties
Dynasties turns wildlife documentary into soap opera with teeth: five families of chimps, lions, tigers, painted wolves and penguins, each fighting to keep their line alive against rivals, weather and human encroachment. Attenborough narrates with his usual gravity, but the camera lingers on individual animals long enough that you start rooting for them like characters. Gorgeous, occasionally heartbreaking, built for anyone who wants nature with a plot.
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Planet Earth II2016
Same crew, same budget, same jaw-dropping camera work, but a broader canvas — instead of five family sagas you get the whole planet's worth of astonishing behaviour, from iguanas outrunning snakes to snow leopards stalking cliffs.
But Less emotional attachment to individual animals; it trades intimacy for spectacle and breadth.
Blue Planet II2017
The ocean answer to Dynasties' land-based drama, with the same instinct for finding a story inside nature — tool-using fish, grieving orcas, coral spawning like fireworks. Arguably the best thing the BBC's natural history unit has made.
But Underwater footage can feel cooler and more alien than the warm-blooded intimacy of Dynasties' families.
Our Planet2019
Attenborough again, but on Netflix and with the conservation message turned up loud — this is Dynasties' quiet subtext about endangered species made explicit and urgent, shot with equally staggering technical craft.
But The climate-crisis framing is more insistent and less hopeful than Dynasties' hero narratives.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Succession2018
Dynasties is literally about succession — who inherits power, who gets pushed out, who dies trying to hold on. Swap lions for media moguls and painted wolves for siblings and you have the same show in different fur.
The nastiest, funniest family drama on television, entirely about the brutal mechanics of who inherits the throne — the same primal stakes as a lion pride, played out in boardrooms and helicopters.
But No animals, no Attenborough, and the characters are almost uniformly loathsome — if you watched Dynasties for warmth, this offers none.
More like this (8)
Seven Worlds, One Planet2019no page yet
Structured continent by continent rather than family by family, but it keeps Dynasties' trick of finding a single animal's story worth following — a mother pygmy sloth, a lone bear — inside the bigger picture.
But The continent framing means less time with any one animal than Dynasties' hour-long deep dives allow.
The Hunt2015no page yet
Narrated by Attenborough and built entirely around predator-and-prey drama, this leans even harder into the tension and storytelling instincts that make Dynasties feel like nature with a script.
But It's relentless — chase after chase can wear you down if you wanted the family-bond warmth Dynasties also offers.
Africa2013no page yet
An earlier BBC series that essentially rehearses the Dynasties formula continent by continent — following elephants, hippos and painted dogs through long, personal arcs rather than quick vignettes.
But Slightly older camera tech than Dynasties' newest kit, and less tightly focused on single families.
Frozen Planet2011
Attenborough at his most operatic, tracking polar bears and penguins through the extremities of ice and cold — the closest thing to Dynasties' Emperor penguin story, stretched across an entire frozen world.
But The polar setting narrows the emotional register compared to Dynasties' mix of jungle, savannah and ice.
Life2007
An older Attenborough series obsessed with the sheer strangeness of survival strategies across the whole animal kingdom — less narrative-driven than Dynasties but packed with individual moments just as astonishing.
But Episodic and broad rather than following one family's fate, so it lacks Dynasties' sustained emotional arc.
Planet Earth2006
The series that started the modern nature-doc boom and set the template Dynasties refined — if you've never gone back to the original, it still holds up as pure widescreen wonder.
But Feels slower and less character-focused by comparison; you're watching landscapes and species more than following a story.
March of the Penguins2005
This is the spiritual ancestor of Dynasties' penguin episode — the same yearly survival march stripped down to just one family, one crisis, ninety minutes, no other storylines competing for attention.
A gorgeous, patient single-subject documentary that proves you don't need five families and six episodes — one emperor penguin colony's brutal annual trek is more than enough drama for a whole film.
But Slower pace, no cross-cutting between species, and Morgan Freeman's hushed narration is a very different register from Attenborough's.
Meerkat Manor2006
Same premise as Dynasties — name the animals, follow one family's power struggles and losses across a season — but with the gravity stripped out and replaced by narrated soap-opera melodrama. The trashy cousin of the same idea.
Proof that the 'follow one animal family like a soap opera' idea works even without BBC prestige — gossipy narration, genuine cliffhangers, and you will absolutely cry over a meerkat.
But Cheaply made reality TV next to Dynasties' cinema-grade photography, and the tone is deliberately melodramatic rather than solemn.
People
Cast
David AttenboroughNarrator
Production
- Michael GuntonExecutive Producer
- Felicity LanchesterProducer
- Lydia BainesProducer
- Miles BartonProducer
- Nick LyonProducer
- Rosie ThomasProducer
- Rupert BarringtonProducer
- Simon BlakeneyProducer