The Dinosaurs is a four-part docuseries, narrated by Morgan Freeman with Steven Spielberg as an EP, that explores the rise and fall of the dinosaurs via their over 100 million years’ of existence. Using lifelike CGI, the show’s producers take research about the dinosaur era and create pulse-pounding documentary-like footage of the various species in action.

THE DINOSAURS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A lush jungle. “66 Million Years Ago.” As a small dinosaur runs, through, we hear Morgan Freeman say, “Earth. Sixty-six million years ago.”

The Gist:  The first episode shows a pachycephalosaurs, smaller than most of the giant creatures that populated the end of the Jurassic era, make his way over to his family as they were threatened by an interloper; he has to get through a “herd of giants” to get to them, then fight the interloper. He’s saved by a tyrannosaurus rex gobbling up the opponent at the last minute.

Then we go to the rise of the dinosaurs, starting 235 million years ago in the Triassic era. Then, all of the earth’s land masses were connected in a mass called Pangea, and was mostly inhospitable desert. But on the coasts, there was lush woodland, and the ancient reptiles ruled. But a distant and tiny ancestor of the dinosaurs, the marasuchas, survived and thrived against the odds, primarily due to the fact that it could walk — and run — on two legs.

The rest of the first episode goes from there, documenting the dinosaurs thriving through the million-year Carnian Pluvial Event, a deluge of rain that changed the face of the planet. After that gigantic trees made food hard to access for the reptiles, but the dinos adapted by growing large and having long necks.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Dinosaurs is made by the producers of Life On Our Planet and the CGI reminds us of the Apple TV series Prehistoric Planet.

Our Take: As with Prehistoric Planet and other series that have gone the route of showing CGI dinosaurs in what we believe was their natural habitat, The Dinosaurs is spectacular looking. Everything from the details on the skin of the reptiles and dinos to how the ecosystems of the planet looked 200 million years ago feels so realistic that the viewer gets sucked in and gets involved like it’s a nature documentary following 21st century species.

We do like the storytelling format of The Dinosaurs, where their rise, dominance, and extinction are told in chronological order. Even if the narrative skips ahead by millions of years at a time, it’s still a good overview to explain to people who last paid attention to dinosaurs when the original Jurassic Park came out how much deeper our knowledge of that era is now than it was then. And it gives a good overview of just which species were around when.

Performance Worth Watching: The animators at Industrial Light & Magic did the CGI for this series, and they did their usual amazing job.

Sex And Skin: None.

Parting Shot: A Lilliensternus fights an ancient reptile on top of a cliff that’s about to get overrun by a massive storm.

Sleeper Star: Morgan Freeman isn’t exactly a sleeper, but his voice of God narration seems to fit this story well.

Most Pilot-y Line: Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but the first episode showed a lot of dinosaurs and reptiles get eaten by other dinosaurs and reptiles. The circle of life, yes, but also something that might be traumatic for your smallest dinosaur aficionados to watch.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Dinosaurs has a solid narrative arc, spectacular CGI and the inimitable voice of Morgan Freeman to guide us through the 140 million year rule of the largest animals that ever walked the earth.