National Geographic’s Savage Kingdom returns for a fourth season on Friday, August 14th for a three-week, six-episode television event. While this new season is a continuing story (you can watch all three previous seasons on Hulu), the narrative makes it easy to pick up with any episode and the season premiere would also be a perfect opportunity to get into Savage Kingdom. Like The Lion King, the savannah is constantly in a power struggle between hyenas and big cats (and dogs).
This series is really the story of a kingdom of battling queens with some new key players taking center stage this season. Tsebe, the lion queen of Mombo in Northern Botswana, leads her lionesses through battles against the dreaded hyenas that struggle to regain power. Other enemies of the dreaded hyenas are Mogolo and her pack of wild dogs and Motshidi, a reclusive leopard.
As you would expect from a series called Savage Kingdom that stars predators, there are many catch, kill, eat sequences. But giving viewers the full “Circle of Life” experience, there are also births. As terrifying as the hyenas are, the birth of a new cub named Khutlo also proves that any animal, no matter how menacing, can still be adorable as a cub.
The cinematography of the series is truly incredible, with breathtaking panning shots of life on the savannah setting each scene. Quick panning shots reveal a tower of giraffes or a troop of baboons. Mombo is teaming with life and there’s no shortage of predator and prey in this fittingly titled “Savage kingdom.”
This season of Savage Kingdom is also a story about the importance of water, with the story starting during the dry season. One of the most essential elements for life to exist, water and the desperate need for it is another key part of the story. The reality of water in Mombo is that it comes and goes quite quickly, literally over the course of this six-episode season.
The Emmy-nominated Savage Kingdom, narrated by Game of Thrones actor Charles Dance, will delight and excite viewers on Friday evenings throughout the rest of August. Each night will include two back-to-back hour-long episodes where animal royalty fight over the balance of power. It’s a real-life The Lion King, or as the case may be, “The Lion Queen.”
I give Savage Kingdom Season Four 5 out of 5 yawning lion cubs.
Season four of Savage Kingdom premieres Friday, August 14th, at 9:00 pm ET on National Geographic.