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I recently watched the best biology documentary series I've seen that does not involve David Attenborough. Inside Nature's Giants is a British series in which a different large animal is dissected each episode with experts on hand to provide analysis and interpretation. I have watched episodes of the elephant, whale, and giraffe, and learned things every episode. The constraints and adaptations associated with elephants' legs, for example, blew me away. I'm an insect-lover myself, so vertebrate physiology and anatomy is pretty foreign to me (what do you mean there's no exoskeleton?!), but the series struck the right balance of giving viewers broad context as an introduction before going deeper into details.
It's nice to see a great biology series that doesn't dumb down or over-sensationalize material. Nature is cool enough without sound effects and techno-junk. Encouraging to see such a good series from someone other than the BBC too (Channel 4 produces the show). Maybe a Canadian channel could attempt to produce something ambitious like this (I'm delusional, I know).
Show website: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/inside-natures-giants/
YouTube video of elephant episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ZbfpmnVMg
