The shots are unreal. We fly behind and next to a bee in the jungle. We see lust on a young bonobo\u2019s face. We watch lions and hyenas fight over a carcass in the middle of the night. National Geographic\u2019s \u201cQueens\u201d delivers the nature documentary goods, and while watching it, I couldn\u2019t stop wondering how they\u2019d captured so much stunning footage.<\/p>\n
Thankfully the seven-part series ends with a behind-the-scenes look at the Angela Bassett\u2013narrated and executive-produced series. In it, we learn that women directed all of the episodes of \u201cQueens,\u201d capturing footage across four years. The production paired experienced filmmakers with their rising peers, recruiting directors in the countries in which they filmed.<\/p>\n
The result is an intimate portrayal of creatures ranging in size from ants to elephants. We learn about their social structures, familial bonds, mating habits, gender dynamics, and more.<\/p>\n
As such, \u201cQueens\u201d hits all the regular beats of its genre. Climate change is threatening these unique and captivating animals\u2019 very existence. Ditto for development that is shrinking their habitats. And of course, the natural world is unforgiving if not cruel. Outside of the handful of animals who get eaten, we see many species kill their own, usually with a male destroying the offspring of a rival, despite the mother\u2019s best efforts to stop him. Lions, bears, orcas, monkeys, they all do this, with bee and hyena matriarchs getting in on the infanticide. It\u2019s a reminder that humans aren\u2019t the only ones who kill our own kind.<\/p>\n
The show doesn\u2019t draw that particular conclusion, but it does seem to imply that animal mothers offer us meaningful models of feminine leadership\u2014and that idea doesn\u2019t work. The selected animals\u2019 matriarchal societies aren\u2019t \u201cnew\u201d like the opening monologue insists. Elephants and the rest have been led by the female of their species since time immemorial.<\/p>\n
Moreover, these female animals do not offer a kinder or different model of leadership than species with male leaders. We literally watch a hyena kill a pup\u2014her niece no less\u2014in her bid to take leadership of the pack! Animals can be ruthless, female or not. The only possible exception here is the bonobos. \u201cQueens\u201d notes that they are the least violent and most playful of all primates\u2014and the only ones led by females. They also don\u2019t have to fight for food, living in a jungle where there\u2019s plenty for everyone. But the show doesn\u2019t investigate what came first\u2014their peaceful way of life, their feminine leadership, or their relative prosperity.<\/p>\n
Instead, \u201cQueens\u201d is more interested in amping up the drama in ways that pander to a feminist-light, girlboss type of sensibility. For example, the show features a variety of over-the-top musical cues that had me laughing at rather than with \u201cQueens.\u201d Do we need countless songs playing on the word \u201cqueens\u201d and applying our pop culture understanding of that word (and \u201cmother\u201d in the very cool Gen Z sense) to be fascinated by the natural world? No, we do not. Also, throwing in tracks like a remake of Destiny Child\u2019s \u201cSurvivor\u201d as a wolf learns to make it without her pack is so on the nose as to be silly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The shots are unreal. We fly behind and next to a bee in the jungle. We see lust on a young bonobo\u2019s face. We watch lions and hyenas fight over a carcass in the middle of the night. National Geographic\u2019s \u201cQueens\u201d delivers the nature documentary goods, and while watching it, I couldn\u2019t stop wondering how …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-1254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary-movies","tag-documentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1254\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/us.celebrity2000.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}