Had enough junk food? After a week of, well, Shark Week, a cheeky tabloid take on nature documentaries, it’s time for the real thing. A return to “Planet Earth,” if you will.
David Attenborough presents and narrates “Planet Earth: Mammals” (8 p.m. Saturday, BBC America, TV-PG), a six-part series broadcast weekly through Aug. 17.
“Mammals” certainly kicks off with a bang. Apparently, some 60 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth and brought an abrupt curtain down on the age of dinosaurs. Mammals were uniquely suited for survival, and in the intervening eons have literally inherited the Earth. As Attenborough explains, they are dominant on every continent, and many thrive in the ocean’s most forbidding depths.
The six episodes are organized more conceptually than geographically. “Mammals” begins with “Dark,” a look at how many mammal species have adapted to travel, prey and feed after the sun goes down.
As most installments of “Planet Earth” are as much cinematic spectacles as nature lessons, this presents some visual challenges. Among the most gorgeous, if haunting, moments in “Dark” are the scenes of leopards stalking a family of baboons who have camped out for the night in a canopy of trees.
The higher primates have pretty bad night vision and know to seek refuge in leafy heights. It’s fun to watch them rip up foliage to create little hammocks in the sky. But this is not exactly their night.
Leopards have a reflecting element located behind their retina that allows them to see in the dimmest light. Add to that their feline ability to climb trees, and it quickly becomes obvious that we’re not in for a fair fight.
The fateful struggle unfolds in what looks like a highly stylized black-and-white negative print. While shot with advanced 21st-century technology, the imagery evokes memories of old silver-nitrate photography. It’s gorgeous and even a bit “arty.” And you don’t have to be a treed baboon to find it a bit frightening.
Next week’s installment, “The New Wild,” examines the disappearance of wild mammals from the planet’s surface. Of all the mammals on the planet, less than 6% are truly wild. Many face extinction from changing climate and lost habitat as they are crowded out by the most dominant and dangerous mammal of them all, the creature we see every time we glance in a mirror.
Episodes of “Planet Earth: Mammals” also stream on AMC+ on the same day as the BBC America broadcast.
— Summer is always the time to shake things up. CBS imports “Tulsa King” (8 p.m. Sunday, TV-MA) from its corporate cousin, the Paramount+ streaming service.
For the uninitiated, “Tulsa” stars Sylvester Stallone (“Rocky,” “Rambo”) as Dwight, a New York gangster on the outs with his criminal associates, who relocates to the titular Oklahoma city to find new territory and throw his (aging) weight around.
This makes perfect sense, corporate-synergy-wise. On the other hand, CBS and Paramount+ are part of a corporation nobody entirely understands. The Paramount universe was recently acquired by Skydance Media, a tech company disguised as a movie studio associated with the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. Skydance was founded by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, the tycoon behind Oracle, the Austin-based computer technology giant.
This marks the latest tech money takeover of traditional media. Our viewing options are increasingly created by companies named Apple, Amazon and Netflix. The merger offers a metaphorical changing of the guard too obvious not to spawn a million articles and columns.
It’s interesting to watch someone associated with Oracle, a company concerned with the near-mystical nuts and bolts of computers and “clouds,” buying Paramount, a studio founded during the silent movie days, whose largest shareholder, Shari Redstone, headed a company named “National Amusements.” It almost sounds like she was in the business of selling gumball machines and manufacturing yo-yos and whoopee cushions.
For what it’s worth, CBS remains the most-watched network. Viacom, the cable end of the corporation, has seen its fortunes wane. There was a time, not that long ago, when Viacom seemed to have a lock on viewers and represented a cable variation on the great chain of being. It grabbed you just as you learned to toddle and talk. Then you’d graduate from Nick Jr. to Nickelodeon to MTV, moving from crayons to candy and Clearasil and beyond. It reminded me of General Motors back in the day, when the transition from Chevrolet to Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac were signs of status, if not maturity.
But just as Americans don’t make old-fashioned cars anymore, viewers aren’t watching cable. Or not enough of them to see much of a future in the medium.
Just what will Skydance make of CBS-Paramount? It’s hard to tell. We’d have to consult an Oracle. And it’s not talking.
— Cellphone footage and professional storm trackers capture weather at its most perilous in the documentary series “In the Eye of the Storm” (10 p.m. Sunday, Discovery, streaming on MAX, TV-14). The personal and unprofessional nature of the cinematography only adds to the sense of chaos and danger. One tracker captures a tornado funnel with two lights revolving in the sky, then realizes to his horror that they belong to a car that probably contains doomed passengers.
— The sudden death of a respected judge (Forest Whitaker) sends a family scrambling to unravel his many secrets in the new series “Emperor of Ocean Park” (10 p.m., Sunday, MGM+, TV-MA).
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Regional MLB baseball action (7 p.m., Fox).
— IndyCar racing (8 p.m., NBC). Live from the Iowa Speedway.
— A recent convert becomes smitten with her pastor, a polygamous predator, in the 2024 shocker “Sister Wife Murder” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG).
— A woman’s impetuous wish makes the holidays disappear in the 2023 fantasy “Rescuing Christmas” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Team Argentina meets a to-be-determined team in Copa America (8 p.m., Fox).
— The 1993 sports comedy “The Sandlot” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) glances back to childhood games of an earlier time.
— Alphy’s meeting with the bishop takes an unexpected direction on “Grantchester” on “Masterpiece” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
— The king’s kids battle for succession on “House of the Dragon” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— Repressed memories may hold a key on “Orphan Black Echoes” (10 p.m., AMC, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
Self-professed movie geek Quentin Tarantino reverently recreates a pivotal moment in film history set against the frazzled end of the 1960s in the 2019 drama “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (7:25 p.m. Saturday, FX), starring Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie.
SATURDAY SERIES
A student vanishes after a rowdy party on “Tracker” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … Three repeat episodes of “Press Your Luck” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … Two repeat hours of “48 Hours” (9 p.m. and 10 p.m., CBS).
SUNDAY SERIES
“American Ninja Warrior” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … Colter makes an uneasy arrangement with his brother on “Tracker” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … Dante and Big Ben are ambushed on “The Equalizer” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
