The Secret Lives of Animals

A 10-part series narrated by an enthusiastic Hugh Bonneville, “The Secret Lives of Animals” distinguishes itself in at least two ways aside from extraordinary cinematography, anxious situations and resourceful beasts. One is the explanation at the end of each 30-odd-minute episode of how the filmmakers did what they did. .... The second bonus in the series is the sense of evolution in motion—how natural selection might have happened.

It is amazing. The natural world is amazing. But I wonder if this also does it a disservice by shoving it into human categories of understanding, as if the only way viewers can admire the intricate lives animals live is by saddling the creatures with the dreary structures of human existence.