OUR PLANET II

Here's the decision. This second season of Netflix's nature series is, simply, some of the finest wildlife filmmaking available on streaming — four episodes that follow lions, elephants, walruses, zebras, penguins, and sea turtles across land, sky, and sea, narrated by the iconic David Attenborough. It is gorgeous, gripping, and honest about the majesty of the world we live in.

It comes with two things to weigh. The series carries a strong environmentalist worldview throughout, and while it marvels at the intricacy of creation, it never once names the God who made it. There's also real violence: predators hunt and kill on camera, graphically, which is why we'd steer the very young clear.

So: if your children are old enough to watch a lion take down its prey without harm, this is a rich, worshipful window onto God's world — one you can point past the screen and toward its Author. Watch it together, and talk about who made all this.

Over the course of a single year, OUR PLANET II follows the great migrations of animals around the globe — the journeys that carry species across continents and oceans to survive.

Attenborough guides you from herds on the move to seas full of life, tracing how the planet's wildlife travels, endures, and adapts. Four episodes, one turning year, and a world on the move.

Four stars, and they're earned. This is filmmaking of a very high order. The camerawork is extraordinary, the storytelling is patient and clear, and the technical choices — slow motion, an emotional, sweeping score — build an epic sense of scale that makes even familiar creatures feel newly astonishing.

It's easily one of the most well-executed nature documentaries currently available on streaming services. More than that, it's emotionally gripping: you don't just observe these animals, you're moved to marvel at the power and delicacy of the living world. Craft this assured is why the praise means something.

OUR PLANET II shows you the wonders of the world with real reverence — and that reverence is where the tension lives. The series accurately depicts the majesty and beauty of God's creation, moving the audience to marvel at nature's intricacy and power. Yet it never attributes any of it to God as the Creator. What ought to lead to worship is left hanging as wonder without an object.

Alongside that runs a strong, very present environmentalist worldview, returning again and again to the effects of modern man and climate change on animal species. Evolutionary claims aren't really the film's business — with one exception. An opening comment states that mankind left Africa "60,000 years ago," a figure that conflicts with young-earth creationism and, as the source notes, with some secular scientists as well. It's worth knowing the biblical, genetic, fossil, and archaeological records of human origins in the Middle East line up more closely than a single narration line suggests.

None of this cancels the beauty. It simply means a discerning family will supply what the film leaves out — the name of the One behind the glory on screen. The heavens declare it even when Netflix doesn't: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1).

This is spectacular filmmaking — a moving, beautifully made tour of the living world that any wildlife-loving family will treasure. It just needs your voice beside it, naming the Creator it leaves unnamed and weighing its message. For older children and up, it's worth watching — older children and up. Gather the family, and let the glory on screen lead you to the God behind it.