Force of Nature review: climate crisis as spectacle
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- Force of Nature is a six-part documentary, three years in the making, focused on how extreme weather events are reshaping the lives of animals worldwide.
- Andrew Lincoln narrates the series, delivering lines with a theatrical emphasis that italicizes the final three words of every sentence — a quirk the reviewer calls maddening.
- The documentary features animals including owls in South Dakota, elephants in churning storm water, polar bears floating mournfully on small discs of ice, and cheetah siblings crossing floodwaters in Kenya's Maasai Mara.
- The series intercuts global news report excerpts citing events like 'West Africa's worst heatwave in living memory' and the Arctic warming at approximately three times the global rate.
- Force of Nature's aesthetic is criticized as a 'late-90s Hollywood disaster movie' with a thunderous soundtrack and shots of crashing waves and sorrowing elephants.
- The reviewer praises the documentary's 'tremendous' photography, particularly the footage of cheetahs navigating floodwaters to reach antelope prey.
- The reviewer ultimately questions whether the show's 'fighting back' heroic framing turns 'everyday victims of a human-made disaster' into a 'pompom-shaking spectacle' rather than galvanizing action.
Why it matters: The reviewer's critique lands on a tension the documentary itself surfaces: it intercuts news reports stating the Arctic warms at three times the global rate, yet frames animals as 'fighting back' heroes — a transformation the reviewer argues turns climate catastrophe into entertainment rather than urgency. With six episodes and a high-profile Andrew Lincoln narration, Force of Nature is a flagship climate title whose stylistic choices may shape how mass audiences engage with the crisis it documents.
