INTERVIEW: Nat Geo celebrates ‘Underdogs’ of the animal kingdom
Photo: Underdogs is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+. Photo courtesy of Nat Geo / Provided by Smithhouse with permission.
This summer, forget the lions, tigers and bears, and instead focus on the lesser-known critters of the animal kingdom. On the new series Underdogs, hilariously narrated by Ryan Reynolds, unsung fauna get their time in the spotlight. Rather than sharks, there’s an invisible glass frog. Rather than elephants, there’s a goose that nests on the side of a cliff. Rather than polar bears, there are cave-dwelling fungus gnats.
Underdogs recently premiered on National Geographic, and now the entire series is available to stream on Hulu and Disney+. Polly Billam serves as co-series producer and writer, according to press notes, and she loves how the show brings a necessary focus to animals that are almost always forgotten about.
“When you make natural history, we focus on the 1 percent,” Billam said in a recent Zoom interview. “In fact, I think we focus on the 0.00001 percent. I reckon there’s 5 million to 10 million species out there, but we tend to feature the same characters. And they’re worthy characters, the lions and the tigers and the bears and the sharks, but it can start to feel like you’re telling the same stories. And also more importantly it can start to feel like you’re telling the same stories to the same audiences. People who work in natural history know, because you come across them when you’re in the field or you’re doing the research and talking to scientists, there are so many incredibly stories out there. There are so many unbelievable animals. I think with Underdogs, the truth is stranger than fiction. Their stories are so remarkable, and these are the unsung heroes of the natural world. We get to tell the world about them, which is really exciting.”
There are so many unsung heroes in the animal kingdom that it was difficult for Billam and her team to select the specific animals to feature on the inaugural season of the show. There appears to be enough material for many more seasons of Underdogs.
“We ended up with quite strict criteria about what is an underdog, so it had to be an animal that was icky or perceived as being a bit of a loser, an animal you might not be familiar with,” she said. “Their story would have multiple beats to it and would hold your interest above and beyond they do one icky thing and that’s all they do. We also looked for characters that people would relate to. It was really important to us. … We all know what it feels like to be an underdog at some point in our lives, and we try to look for animal stories that people would connect with that would make them feel something when they watch that animal stick it to the man as an underdog.”
Billam said she and the team love these animals, and their goal was to have viewers fall in love with the species as well. They definitely use the tools of anthropomorphizing to tell their stories, but they employ this documentary technique in order to build narrative and character.
“So some of them we give names; some of them we don’t,” the producer said. “We always pick which character in the story we’re following and the one you want to identify with. Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist? But we want people to root for the underdogs. We want people to root for nature.”
Billam added: “So first we sort of looked to try and build a connection with that animal. Then we try and make you feel something. I think the comedy is there, but comedy works best when it’s served alongside other emotions. So my favorite stories are ones where you don’t just use amusement, but you feel another emotion next to it, so like the mother gazelle runs in at the end of ‘Terrible Parents’ episode to save her baby fawn from the jackals. We set her up as though she’s a terrible parent, although she’s not a terrible parent. It was really important not to punch down at the underdogs. We’re not laughing at them. We’re laughing at their circumstances sometimes or some funny bit of behavior that they do, but ultimately we are rooting for them. And we want them to succeed.”
Billam joined the TV project in the post-production phase. The footage was already shot or acquired after a lengthy tenure in the field, and she needed to lead the team through a complicated editing process.
“You tend to wear a lot more hats in natural history because we’re not as widely resourced as maybe Hollywood movies are, but the writing was just such a brilliant thing to be able to do and be a part of,” she said. “I don’t come from drama writing or comedy writing, but it was fantastic fun to get to write for Ryan and wear that hat on this series.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Underdogs, narrated by Ryan Reynolds, is streaming now on Hulu an Disney+. Click here for more information.
