Stream It Or Skip It: 'Secret World Of Sound With David Attenborough' on Netflix, where enhanced audio reveals how animals use sound to survive (2024)

Secret World Of Sound With David Attenborough is a nature docuseries that uses enhanced audio to show how animals navigate and survive their environment. As Attenborough says in the show’s opening, there are sounds that various species both make and listen to that humans can’t hear, and this series aims to bring some of those sounds to our attention for the first time.

SECRET WORLD OF SOUND WITH DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Views of various habitats. “The natural world is filled with sound, says host David Attenborough. “But so far we’ve been hearing only part of it.”

The Gist: The first episode revolves around predators and prey. From three brothers in a pride of lions roaring to let others know they’re roaming their territory, we go to a garden to watch buff-tailed bumblebees vibrate their wings to generate the buzz needed to shake pollen loose from a flower.

The clicking of bottlenose dolphins alert eels and small fish to flee, but the dolphins use those clicks to find fish and other prey beneath the sand. The great grey owl has to compensate for the snow deflecting the sound of prey tunneling through. Kangaroo mice thump the ground to warn off both predators and rivals for their food. Elephants feel the rumbling of a thunderstorm 100 miles away via their feet. Earthworms listen for the pitter-patter of rain to come to the surface, but seagulls use their feet to mimic that sound in order to get a meal.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Blue Planet, A Life On Our Planet, Planet Earth or any of the dozens of nature documentaries that Attenborough has hosted.

Our Take: Secret World Of Sound With David Attenborough not only uses enhanced audio to give viewers a listen to sounds we’ve never heard from the animal kingdom before, but director Rebecca Hart and the show’s various cinematographers do a great job getting vibrant footage of those animals using and responding to those sounds.

We’ve seen a lot of these methods in other shows, but it’s interesting that here, those methods take a back seat to the sounds. Night vision cameras capture the same pride of lions we saw at the beginning of the episode chase down wildebeest, feast on a warthog and fight hyenas for the carcass. Macro photography shows us the bees and earthworms in their environments, as well as following the kangaroo mouse around at night. Underwater cameras show us the bottlenose dolphins’ method of hunting using sound and echolocation.

The idea that all of these methods are just a means to an end in this series actually makes it more interesting to watch. The producers aren’t trying to point out their visual wizardry here; the pictures are there to enhance the real reason for the show, which is all of those fascinating sounds. And those sounds are truly interesting, especially in cases where predators mimic sounds its prey use as signals to come out of where they are hiding.

Attenborough, 98 years young, is as game as ever to lean into his narration, and even appears on camera in parts of the first episode. There’s a reason why he seems to have become the default voice of nature documentaries; he talks about what we’re seeing with a zeal and air of expertise few other narrators have.

Sex and Skin: None. The only thing that might not make the show family-friendly is that there is some “circle of life” footage of predators killing and eating prey.

Parting Shot: A preview of the second episode, which examines how animals use sound to ward off competition and attract a mate.

Sleeper Star: The sound engineers who have utilized the technology that recorded the enhanced audio need to be commended here.

Most Pilot-y Line: None that we can find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Secret World Of Sound With David Attenborough pairs amazing visuals with some never-heard-before audio to show a more complete picture of what animals use to navigate their environments.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.