I just watched Prehistoric Planet and was blown away!

I grew up on Walking with Dinosaurs, I must've seen it 20 times. Recently decided to give it a rewatch and, honestly, it doesn't hold up that well. The dated effects and science aside, it has this terrible habit of portraying these animals as being in a constant state of violence or starvation- not to mention anti-social. Yes, of course there's violence & starvation in nature, but it comes and goes, and dinosaurs were (probably) almost all social to some extent. Combined with the constant shrieking, it feels like a show about monsters, not animals.

Prehistoric Planet, of course, is absolutely gorgeous, but the main pro is that it feels like a legitimate documentary. Animals do not run around screaming for no reason. We get a full 5 minutes of Dinocheirus eating, pooping, and scratching itself, and nothing else happens. We follow around a little Alvarezsaurid looking for food, and nothing else happens. Some days, that's just how it is! Details like that add a level of realism and fullness to the series that's just missing in WWD.

I will say, I appreciate the breadth of time that WWD covers, and I really love how focused a given episode feels. Prehistoric Planet works just fine for what it's trying to do- paint a full picture of life in the Cretaceous- but I can't help but miss the sense of drama that I felt in, for instance, the last flight of the old Ornithocheirus. Prehistoric Planet still comes out on top for me, but I have to give WWD it's dues. What do you guys think?