This year, so far, has been one of re-awakened childhood interests. Space, aliens, fantasy, sci-fi, and of course, learning about the dinosaurs! I’ve seriously felt like a five-year-old boy these past few months between watching the Artemis II crew, enjoying all of the Project Hail Mary content I can lay my hands on, and Netflix’s newest edition to their documentary series—The Dinosaurs.

The Dinosaurs on Netflix is a new documentary as part of the “Life on Our Planet” documentary series. It’s narrated by Morgan Freeman, and honestly, need I say more? If Morgan Freeman is involved, you can count that I’ll be watching. As written by Netflix, “This nature documentary series worked with more than 50 scientific advisors to recreate the age of the dinosaurs in stunning detail and accuracy” (Netflix). The Dinosaurs is a limited, four-episode series that details the different ages of the dinosaurs, and how they ruled over planet Earth.

For just this once, Jurassic Park is the movie you should put on hold, and then watch after you’ve seen this incredible dino-doc!

CAN WE ALL JUST AGREE THAT DINOSAURS ARE COOL?

I can’t pretend anymore—this author thinks that dinosaurs are awesome! I know that for many of our readers, you guys probably already knew this and think I’m being silly. Like, duh. Of course dinosaurs are cool. Truth be told, however, it’s just something that never really occurred to me before. I never had a dinosaur phase as a kid!

Relearning something as an adult is truly like learning something for the first time. All of the childhood facts I may have known about things like dinosaurs and space completely slipped out of my head, and made room for other things. If I had those interests as a child, they just didn’t last long enough to stick. Now though, my adult brain looks at things that sound interesting, and encourages me to want to know more. It all sounds a bit ridiculous, re-learning things that I know are important, but that’s just how it works sometimes when you’re an adult focusing on different things!

That’s why I think The Dinosaurs is such a great documentary to watch in your free time. You get to learn, watch dinosaur species duke it out with each other and the natural elements, and can now impress all of your friends with dinosaur facts. Basically, all of the things that would entertain a five-year-old can now entertain you too!

TRIASSIC, JURASSIC—RED FISH, BUE FISH

The four-episode series begins in the Triassic dinosaur era of Earth. It’s a geological period of time in Earth that marks when reptiles ruled the planet, and the dinosaurs first began to rise from their ancestors. The Dinosaurs doc will truly teach you about animals you’ve never heard of before—not to mention all of the names of dinosaurs that I could never hope to pronounce properly. Once again, I’m left feeling grateful that humans did not exist during this time; we would have been crushed.

Watching this series honestly felt like reading some fantasy sci-fi novel about an alien race that slowly began to take over the world—now I seriously know why Steven Spielberg felt inspired to create Jurassic Park. It’s just so amazing to remember that dinosaurs once ruled the Earth, and how Earth provided for these creatures on land, in sea, and in the air.

Morgan Freeman teaches us about the next geological period on Earth, the Jurassic Era. Now this was when dinosaurs truly ruled the world. There wasn’t a corner of the planet that the dinosaurs didn’t touch. After raining for literally a million years straight, Pangea began to break apart, creating a hotter climate that lead to the dinosaurs absolutely dominating. Everywhere we walk now, the dinosaurs once stood before. Personally, I find it very amusing to imagine a dinosaur walking around modern-day Paris. Obviously, Europe did not exist millions of years ago, but just picture a T-Rex with a beret, glasses, and a tiny espresso.

WHY WAS I SHOCKED AT THE ENDING, WHEN I KNEW IT WAS COMING?

The big finale—we know it’s coming to an end for the dinosaurs. One lonely space astroid knocked off course, led to the single biggest disaster in Earth’s history. And yet, when watching this in The Dinosaurs, I found myself so immersed that I forgot how devastating this was for their species, and for Earth. Again, realizing things as an adult with a mostly-developed frontal lobe hits way harder!

The dinosaurs led an existence on this planet that we, as humans, haven’t even come close to reaching. They led our planet for over 160 million years, and evolved humans haven’t even reached a half-million. We’re just a small spec, barely starting to make our mark on the world in comparison to what the dinosaurs did.

The Dinosaurs puts all of this in perspective for us little humans. I highly recommend that this year, you take a closer look at what came before us, and re-learn about the past of Earth’s mightiest species.

The Dinosaurs is currently streaming on Netflix! Give it a roaring five stars!