Stream It Or Skip It: ‘America The Beautiful’ On Disney+, A Docuseries About North America’s Diverse And Fascinating Ecosystems

America The Beautiful is a six-part docuseries, produced by Dan Rees and directed by Maddie Close, that takes a close look at the wildlife on the North American continent, showing them in ways that aren’t often shown on nature shows. The first two episodes are arranged by themes, while the other four episodes are somewhat more regional: “Northland,” “Wild West,” “Heartland” and “Waterland.”

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Rapid aerial shots of various landscapes. “Welcome to North America,” says narrator Michael B. Jordan. “The most diverse continent on earth.”

The Gist: The second episode, “Brave New World,” is more human-focused, showing people who are making an effort to preserve the continent’s endangered environments and species.

The first episode, “Land Of Heroes,” crisscrosses the continent to show various species that are considered “heroes” for one reason or another. But these heroes aren’t necessarily who you think — we only see a brief glimpse, for instance, of a bald eagle. We see a squirrel hoarding pine cones for the winter, unsuccessfully fending off thieving bears and other larger animals, but finding out that the little guy has more storage spots than we realized. There’s a roadrunner catching a lizard to present to a potential mate. We see caribou moms guarding their calves during migration and bravely moving on when a mama bear hunts down one of them.

Prairie dogs and other burrowing animals go underground when one of the heartland’s notoriously devastating tornadoes blow through, then they have to put up with the weather extremes. An alligator stalks some white-tailed deer for its first meal in two years; dolphins use their intelligence to make a school of anchovies more manageable for themselves and other, less clever predators, at least before the massive blue whales show up.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? America The Beautiful certainly has the feel of the Planet Earth series, which EP Mark Linfield was involved with, and the tone and look will be familiar to anyone who has watched the Disneynature feature films, whose production companies also overlap with this show.

Our Take: The first episode of America The Beautiful is somewhat scattered, given how it’s basically crossing the continent every time it moves from one featured species to another. The photography is beautiful, of course, showing the true topographical and climate diversity that the content has. And the transitions from one region to another, using rapid aerial shots, makes the segues smoother than they could have been.

But the loose theme of “heroes” for the first episode didn’t quite hold together, and it really didn’t give us an idea of what America The Beautiful is doing that sets it apart from other nature shows that feature ecosystems on this continent. Then the series shifts focus in the second episode from the animals to people trying to preserve these ecosystems. But then it shifts right back to the ecosystems again, going through various regions that were touched upon in the first episode.

It’s a bit disconcerting, but then again, it’s a nature series. We’re looking for amazing photography and insight into species we haven’t seen before. We get that with scenes like the dolphins sorting out the massive and dizzying school of anchovies, or the oak toad eating ants off a sticky plant. Jordan’s narration strikes the same serious-to-wry tone that we’ve seen with the celebrity narrators for the Disneynature films. It’s pretty easy to get past some of the series’ inconsistencies given the production values as well as the fascinating footage in each episode.

What Age Group Is This For?: There is some footage of predators catching and eating prey, but it’s not bloody. For the most part, nature-loving kids of all ages can watch.

Parting Shot: We get that bald eagle shot we’ve been waiting for, as Jordan talks about how these heroes survive to create “new generations that call this beautiful continent home.”

Sleeper Star: As with all shows like this, the cinematography is spectacular, so this will go to all the field producers and camera operators who patiently wait these animals out and shoot hundreds of hours of footage for the few key minutes that make into the show.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Tornadoes are getting more widespread as our climate warms. A big challenge for people, but for the burrow dwellers of the Great Plains, a tornado is just a minor inconvenience.” That’s about as close as the show gets to discussing climate change. Good to know that a devastating tornado is a minor inconvenience to a burrowing owl or prairie dog.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite the series’ scattershot focus, America The Beautiful has more than enough spectacular footage to satisfy fans of nature docuseries.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.