Parenthood: David Attenborough's nature series is surprisingly sinister

Expect 'sublime' visuals, 'exquisite' narration – and matricidal spiders

A father lion plays with his cub
Big daddy: a lion takes on his parenting duties
(Image credit: BBC / Silverback Films / Russ Maclaughlin)

If you grumble that your kid is "never off their phone" or leaves "mouldy cups festering in their bedroom", watch "Parenthood" and be grateful "that you are not an African social spider", said Carol Midgley in The Times. "At least your children (fingers crossed) won't eat you alive."

The scenes of spiderlings "devouring their poor mother like she was a Deliveroo pizza" feel like something out of a horror film. "And there was me assuming from the title that this might be a sweeter, cutesier David Attenborough offering. How naïve!"

Thankfully, the series features "plenty of non-arachnid wildlife" too, said Neil Armstrong in The i Paper. Over the five episodes, we meet endangered Iberian Lynx kittens playing together in a derelict barn in Andalucía, and watch a pair of burrowing owls "work together to raise a clutch of chicks". There's also an "extraordinary" sequence, shot at night in the Tanzanian bush, that uses infra-red cameras to reveal a hippo and her calf being "menaced by a pride of lions in thickets of dark, dense grass".

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Aside from the "spider matricide", there is "nothing here we haven't seen before", said Anita Singh in The Telegraph. "Or that's how it feels, anyway." We've been "spoilt" with incredible nature documentaries over the years and we know what to expect – right down to the "obligatory 'how we made it' section at the end".

Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.