Humans have always had a fascination with dinosaurs — the great beasts that pre-dated us on this Earth — and these days you don’t need more than the Jurassic Park franchise box office numbers to prove it. Who better, then, to delve into the history than Steven Spielberg? The Dinosaurs is the second nature docuseries executive-produced by the filmmaker and narrated by Morgan Freeman for Netflix, and as it hits the 2026 TV schedule, critics are sharing their reviews.
The Dinosaurs follows 2023’s Life on Our Planet and will illustrate what the Earth may have looked like in prehistoric times, when dinosaurs ruled the land, sea and sky. According to Shawn Van Horn of Collider, they’ve never looked more real. That’s in large part thanks to Industrial Light & Magic’s effects and the emotional writing that gets us invested in their fight for survival. The critic rates it 8 out of 10, writing:
The Dinosaurs is probably not for the little ones. The docuseries is brutal and unforgiving. It sucks you in with the warm blanket of Morgan Freeman's voice, but he's narrating a vision of hell and even tells us so. Each episode is one scene after another of getting to know a dinosaur, one usually all alone, before its life is either snuffed out by a predator, a sudden fire, or the inability to adapt to a world that keeps evolving. A few scenes are hard to watch because The Dinosaurs does such a phenomenal job of taking these prehistoric creatures and turning them into three-dimensional beings with personalities and fears who only want to make it through another day.
Alex Bear of RIOTUS says the four-part series covers hundreds of millions of years with ease, even injecting stories that are sure to pull at your heartstrings. The final episode that depicts the extinction event is where The Dinosaurs truly shines, Bear says, as it manages to convey the asteroid’s scale of destruction, unlike anything they’ve seen before. The critic grades it a B and says:
You can see the Spielberg DNA running through this docuseries; each scene plays out as if acted for a camera rather than an observation of a natural environment. While cutting footage together to tell linear narratives is standard practise for nature documentaries—and obviously, one about extinct creatures cannot use real footage in the first place—The Dinosaurs feels scripted in a more fictional, cinematic way that echoes its predecessors Jurassic Park and even Jaws. The dinosaurs often pause for an effective close-up or appear at the most opportune moment for maximum drama, built in anticipation by a dynamic and often looming score. And that makes it a whole lotta fun.
Jack Seale of The Guardian gives it 3 out of 5 stars, in part for its photorealistic visual effects, but Morgan Freeman’s voiceover could double as a relaxation tape and is the new Netflix series’ real draw. This critic’s biggest complaint is that it doesn’t offer much that amateur expert viewers won’t already know. In Seale’s words:
If there’s an issue, apart from the well-worn storytelling, it’s the pace and depth of the narrative. The show is keen not to overload us with science but, in the demographic of people willing to spend several hours watching a factual show about dinosaurs, a significant percentage are amateur experts: a lot of folk who like dinosaurs know an awful lot about them, in a way that viewers who might casually tune in to a show about lemurs or dolphins probably do not. They might be frustrated by how little cutting-edge detail there is on each species and era, as the show pitches itself more towards families.
Greg Wheeler of The Review Geek agrees the docuseries fails to properly explore the science behind what we’re seeing or dig deeper into what’s changed about our understanding of the dinosaurs over the years. Wheeler gives The Dinosaurs a 6 out of 10, writing:
The Dinosaurs is perfectly serviceable. It’s another documentary exploring these incredible creatures, but delivered in a rather perfunctory and lackadaisical fashion. There’s entertainment to be found here no doubt, but it lacks the same ferocious roar and razor-sharp bite that the giants of this genre have delivered before.
Anne Brodie of What She Said disagrees, calling the Netflix doc a “must-see.” The subject matter, the animation and, of course, Morgan Freeman’s voice combine for an experience Brodie says is genuinely worth your time. More from the review:
What strikes you most is how genuinely peculiar they look. Science has given us their strange shapes, their terrifying scale, the sheer variety within the species, and this documentary renders all of it viscerally, vividly real. The visuals and sound design are outstanding. You feel like you’re right there. It’s one of the best nature documentaries in years.
The critics seem pretty pleased with the Steven Spielberg-produced docuseries, with the biggest complaints being that it doesn’t dig deep enough into the science, instead focusing on getting us to invest emotionally in the lives of these creatures that lived so many millions of years before humans.
Each of The Dinosaurs’ four episodes is around an hour long and can be streamed now with a Netflix subscription.
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