Season 1 |
Episode Guide
Arizona
New York
Minnesota
Texas
Louisiana
Florida
Washington
New Hampshire
Tiny Creatures is a documentary series that tries to whip up an exciting narrative in each episode rather than allowing these creatures to go about their normal business. Instead of naturally showing these creatures in their environment, the show is given a dose of forced excitement through human interference and fantastical stories. The result is something that feels really misleading and pales by comparison to other documentaries.
Across each of the 8 episodes – set specifically in a different American state – Tiny Creatures depicts a solitary tiny creature and throws them into a gauntlet of predators they have to outsmart. In the first episode we’ve got a Kangaroo Rat but as the episodes progress this evolves to show owls, skunks and more.
The true fascination with animals comes from seeing them in their natural environment and understanding how they live. Here though, Tiny Creatures feels like a David Attenborough documentary on steroids. There’s no time to sit back and relax as numerous predators arrive to try and kill our tiny creature back to back, miraculously surviving every time. And therein lies the biggest issue with this documentary.
The decision to throw more fiction rather than fact into this completely betrays the notion of it being a documentary. Going back to the Kangaroo rats, they spend most of their day sleeping underground yet here they’re up and about during the day. While the narrated facts for the various animals are interesting, it’s ultimately pointless in the wake of such a contrived and forced narrative.
There’s numerous instances of human intervention too and whether it be golfers on a golf course, people in New York City or even a cowboy shooting a tin can, there’s a lot of uncomfortable moments showing humanity at their worst.
That’s to say nothing for the perceived intelligence of these creatures either, with narratives ranging from a pet hamster using vent smoke to evade a hawk or even that infamous kangaroo rat luring a rattlesnake and an eagle together to fight. It gives the illusion that these creatures are far smarter than they actually are and for the younger audience, this could prove problematic for developing minds.
As a fictionalized, dramatic animal adventure, Tiny Creatures has some redeeming features. As an informative and educational tool however, I can’t recommend this. It’s a documentary that fails to document facts, instead pedaling fiction to entertain but failing to understand what really makes these nature docs so endearing to begin with.
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Verdict - 4/10
4/10
Didn’t mind the show being fictional, but the hamster episode is hard to watch if you know anything about proper hamster care. Don’t know how it’s supposed to be educational when it shows the worst, most dated forms of hamster care possible.
My 9 year old daughter started crying during the hamster episode when the hamster basically wandered off into the distance at the end. Anyone smart enough to realize the likely fate of a domestic animal released into the wild will likely feel likewise. Do not recommend.
Hamster cage was aweful (basically animal abuse) they need to do more research on the animals they are informing us on.
“How were the animals treated in making this ?”
As far as I’m aware, they were apparently treated really well but the series definitely doesn’t give that impression. I didn’t like the contrived nature of the human intervention and really don’t get why they chose to add golfers or a biker near these animals. I don’t think they were abused but it’s not a particularly comfortable watch either.
“a far way of Sir David”
I don’t think anyone will top the King to be fair!
The hamster cage that they are using is awful. It is complete animal abuse
Love it! It’s refreshingly new and entertaining with beautiful creatures and amazing film work. 👍
Terrible. Fake AF. How were the animals treated in making this ? Even if the show was a documentary, I couldn’t sit through the narration, a far way of Sir David
This show sucks, it’s literally animal abuse. They’re the ones causing all of this harm to these poor creatures. It’s not even fun to watch, it’s just sad. who came up with this, sick minded people.
This series isn’t ment to be a documentary, it’s ment to be entertaining, and it is. I loved it from start to finish a d can’t wait to see the next season.
This series is CRAP!! Its so staged that this gives me a whole lot of cancer!
This is so bad my will hurts. OMG, the narrator…has he ever been outside the studio? Nice pictures but NOT a true documentary.