BBC Atlas of the Natural World - Western Hemisphere and Anarctica (Land of the Eagle / Spirits of the Jaguar / Wild South America / Life in the Freezer)

Central America is the subject of the four-part "Spirits of the Jaguar," which begins with Mayan creation myths about a battle between gods leading to the formation of the Earth. In fact, islands of the Caribbean were forged by volcanoes 150 million years ago, with plant and animal life following some 70 million years later. Typical of BBC Atlas of the Natural World is the extraordinary photography in this program: frogs and insects suddenly caught in flowing tree sap, crocodiles leaping to pull prey from trees. The story of the Mayans—farmers, astronomers, inventors—moving from the deserts of Mexico down to the jungles of Central America, their lives sustained by slash-and-burn agriculture and good nutrition, is told. So is the tale of the lost civilization of the Aztecs, wanderers for ten generations, viewing themselves as a chosen people, extinguishers of other peoples in Mexico and ultimately destroyed themselves by Spanish conquistadors.

"Land of the Eagle" is a four-part, eye-opening history of North America's transition from home to 10.000 years of native peoples to carved-up European territories eventually devoid of many natural wonders (including buffalo and massive forests). This melancholy story of paradise exploited is offset by remarkable cinematography of wolves, grizzlies, snakes, beavers and birds, while "Wild South America," with its own quartet of episodes, is equally dazzling in its nature photography. South America looks like a magical place of dramatic beauty in this series, a continent once joined to Australia (the two lands share an abundance of marsupials) and home to the world's largest mountain chain and a river (the Amazon) that carries one-fifth of Earth's water. The incredible sights of the Andes and Patagonia (the latter so near Antarctica) are almost indescribable. Speaking of the bottom of the world, "Life In the Freezer," in six epsiodes, is one of the BBC's most splendid productions, a tour of Antarctica hosted by Davd Attenborough that is far more compelling than March of the Penguins. --Tom Keogh