The Americas - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

With a production history totaling over five years, The Americas goes into depth on the wildlife kingdoms on the great American continent, from the tip of Alaska to the very bottom of Argentina, each episode devoted to the web of life and its massive ecosystems. Each region has its own dedicated episode, telling a story about the animals, insects, and plants that call it home. Horses gallop and fight for dominance in the premiere episode, “The Atlantic Coast,” while Orcas teach their calves how to hunt in the final episode, “Patagonia.”

The Americas doesn’t break new ground in how it tells these stories, but it doesn’t have to, because it breaks new ground in how the series was put together visually. Utilizing state-of-the-art drone technology, helicopters, and even underground computer-controlled camera rigs, this show is going to make your jaw drop in how breathtakingly gorgeous it is. Over 35 different camera models were used, including one whose development for the documentation of sperm whales took two years. 

Each episode is narrated by Tom Hanks, whose observations tend to skew toward anthropomorphization. In the first episode, a wild horse is given an elaborate backstory about being an old man, aging out of grace like a prized fighter. In the third episode, “The Wild West,” ants in the Sonoran desert are lined up to deploy and create new nests for the colony, and he likens it to a series of airplanes up for inspection. They’re just a little too cutesy. It’s fine to describe animal behavior on their own terms without having to liken everything to the human experience.

Once you’ve seen a few episodes of the show, you pretty much get the gist, but we all know why we’re here, which is to see some of the most spectacular wildlife cinematography ever committed to video. And on that front, the show absolutely delivers, again and again. With its usage of drones and probes, we as the viewer are privy to such personal, intimate moments; it’s hard to comprehend how some of these sequences were pulled off. The Americas is imperfect, prone to repetition, and often drags in spots, but what it sets out to do, that pure “wow factor,” it has absolutely nailed. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
The Americas arrives on 4K UHD Blu-ray in a two-disc release, housed in a standard case with a removable slipcover. Both the case and the slip contain identical artwork, a kind of corny rendering of animals across the great continent looking directly at the camera–a bison, a cougar, an eagle, and others. Each disc contains half of the 10 episodes, with the sole special feature found on the second disc.

Despite the claims of what the case says, The Americas is not presented in HDR10+, but in regular ol’ HDR10. The case for To Kill a Mockingbird on 4K also erroneously claims to be presented in HDR10+, while only available in HDR10, also released by Universal, so maybe some graphic designer over there just likes the logo, or isn’t aware that HDR10 and HDR10+ aren’t synonymous.

But, I digress. The Americas, which is in stunning 2160p resolution and presented in HDR, is about as good as anything in this format is ever going to look. Would some sort of metadata-driven HDR grading like HDR10+ or Dolby Vision have been nice? Sure, but I’m not sure how much of a difference it would have made when you’re already looking at A-grade material. What you’re looking at is essentially a demo reel for the video technology, and it looks its absolute best. There are some key sequences, lit entirely by natural light, that look so natural, it’s almost like you’re peering through a portal into that time and place. A setting sun in Monument Valley, AZ, with a sunset so bright that the one little blob of light will make your whole home theater light up, bathed in orange. Close-ups of animals showcase every single strand of hair that makes up their fur. You don’t just see each individual scale on a rattlesnake; you see the intricate texture of each scale. And the vast, varied color palette of each episode’s region is rendered beautifully and perfectly, vivid and absolutely awe-inspiring. 

The Americas is the show you have on 4K to throw on when you get a new setup to make sure everything’s working correctly. If this show doesn’t look absolutely incredible, you have to run some calibrations, ‘cause something ain’t right.

The audio isn’t quite as mind-blowing as the 4K/HDR video presentation, but its 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround sound mix is no slouch. Now, if any show was begging for a DTS:X or a Dolby Atmos mix, this would be the one to have all your senses brilliantly overwhelmed with the sights and sounds of the natural world, but I won’t lament it for what it doesn’t have. On the front of the soundstage, Tom Hanks’ narration is crystal clear, with the rich timbre of his voice ever so subtly triggering the subwoofer, as the warmth of his voice resonates throughout your room. The 5.1 mix makes great use of its rear speaker arrangement, for the swells of Hans Zimmer’s musical score, and for ambient effects to place us in the wild with the animals that the show is capturing. I live in Arizona, so naturally, I paid close attention to the “Wild West” episode that documents the desert life near me. I have mourning doves on my property that whine and cry, and I hear them through my windows each morning as I shower and get ready for the day. I watched the show at night, and my rear, right speaker pinged the effects of a mourning dove crying out, and it was so realistically rendered, I thought to myself, “Isn’t it a little late for doves?” It wasn’t until I paused the episode that I realized the sound was from the show.

The Americas only has one special feature, which is the length of a bonus episode, as it delves into the complicated production history that brought it to life. The making-of feature has interviews with crewmembers, plus Tom Hanks talking about how incredible the series came out. 

The making-of episode is presented in 1080p HD, and it’s sort of amazing to see how fuzzy the nature shots look in comparison. 4K resolution doesn’t always make a tremendous difference, depending on what you’re watching, but for this show, the difference is immediately apparent.

• The Making of The Americas (HD 45:12)

I like a nature doc as much as the next person. I’m a student of David Attenborough, and I grew up with PBS and Eyewitness episodes in school when the teacher was too hungover to teach class that day. So, naturally, a show like The Americas is going to be a no-brainer for me. It’s not the best of the best when it comes to relaying scientific factoids in easy-to-understand terms, and it treads familiar ground, but who cares? This is a show that’s meant to wow you with the majesty of the natural world, and it absolutely does that. Every segment, every episode, every kingdom we investigate, is brought to beautiful, stellar life. The 4K/HDR presentation is among the best in existence. This is a show to own to show off your brand-new 4K TV to friends. The Americas on 4K UHD Blu-ray is Highly Recommended.