Recommended Viewings for Writing Lee Gilyoung, etc.
Requested by @frillylizardwsunglasses, everyone say thank you. Been working on this off and on for a few days and think I’ve hit insect documentary saturation point, so I’ll post these and maybe add more later. ✌️
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Into the Undergrowth
5 episode series on Prime, YouTube, BBC website, etc. It’s a classic and voiced by David Attenborough. One of, if not the, first major insect documentaries. Which also means the resolution sometimes isn’t great because it’s from 2005, but that’s okay. Wide variety of insects and habitats, good starting point. You watch a centipede eat a bat and then two slugs have midair corkscrew sex in episode one and kind of begin to understand why Lee Gilyoung is Like That. Insects, y’all. Also goes into history and evolution of insects, which can provide some perspective if you want to tie them into LGY’s dinosaur skill.
72 Dangerous Animals: Asia
10 episode series on Netflix. WWE but for animals - including insects and arachnids, etc. Great for writing LGY and SYS because it gives the geologic region of each species, so you know what would be realistic for them to have access to. Has a wide variety of species that could in some way prove dangerous to humans in particular. Let the kids have some fun with it. The biggest benefit of this series is that, when it comes to the insects, it provides a much more diverse range of species than regular documentaries. I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen bees, praying mantises, dragonflies, and mayflays in the average insect doc. Also helpful for Shin Yoosung. Includes animals, birds, fish, insects, arachnids, ctenophores, etc.
Life (S1:03, Insects)
Simple overview, has random examples which are interesting. Where I learned about Japanese red beetles (KDJ coded) and bushveld lizards (KNW coded). Gorgeous graphics. Just a very pretty and interesting documentary, once again voiced by David Attenborough.
Planet Insect
3 episode series, good general overview of insects if you’re unfamiliar with various species, their evolutionary biology, how they’ve integrated into urban settings, etc. I found it kind of basic tbh but I am an environmental biologist so that might be a me problem.
The Fascinating World of Insects
I watched on YouTube from Free High-Quality Documentaries. Actually pretty good resolution, too. 50 minutes long, fast paced. It took me a few minutes to get into this one, and it does reuse some of the most common examples, but it's still a great brief overview that introduces new facts even to many of the common species discussed in nature documentaries. Learned new things about praying mantises, mosquitos, etc., even after the number of insect documentaries I'd already watched by the time I got to this one. Did have a line that annoyed me, though. And that showed I may have seen too many of these documentaries at this point. "Scorpions are arachnids, members of the spider family." WRONG. Spiders are arachnids, members of the scorpion family. Scorpions came first, even if both evolved separately. Pretty sure it was covered in "Into the Undergrowth," Episode 2 or 3. Help.
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Honorable Mentions
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World’s Biggest and Baddest Bugs
In the honorable category because the insects are pretty basic - the starter set people tend to be interested in - and because many are native only to Australia. Not super helpful for the Seoul scenes. However, the lead scientist: puts a giant cockroach on his face, let’s himself be bitten and stung, purposefully pokes the incredibly venomous centipede that could kill him MULTIPLE TIMES, locks himself half naked in a freezer, lets an incredibly venomous spider crawl on him, and covers himself in 50,000 killer bees. I respect it, and so would Lee Gilyoung.
The Secret World of Insects | Little Matters: Insects
Can be found on YouTube from Wild Life Documentary. Ngl, I was honestly just impressed by the pronunciation. And it has some different species or at least unique facts about The Usual Species(TM) included.
Into the Abyss: Creatures of the Midwater
This one has nothing to do with insects or LGY, ngl. But as an oceanographer, I can't give you a recommended viewing list of nature documentaries and NOT include an ocean one. It also explains the methods of strategies like camouflage, bioluminescence, etc. which could be adapted to suit any monster or scene. Use it for Shin Yoosung or as inspiration to create your own insect monsters by spinning off of plankton or crustaceans. Also features a lot of squid species if you feel like being creative. They actually have a ton of ocean documentaries along with others - sadly no insects - which will be my watching for the next while. My work deals with hydrothermal vents which they have a whole video on, so I’m looking forward to that. Crazy gorgeous resolution, well put together. Has an oceanographer's approval. Except for the pronunciation of "zooplankton." It's pronounced "zoh" not "zoo." Has a sunfish in it.
Where to watch if you don’t have Netflix, Prime, etc.?
Google for other streaming service options if applicable.
Check YouTube.
Go back to Google. 🏴☠️
