TV Review: Bertie Gregory Goes Looking for an Old Friend in “Wolves Up Close”

Bertie Gregory is back with another “Up Close” special for National Geographic, Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory. Having traversed the globe with similar specials focusing on cheetahs, dolphins, and sharks, Wolves Up Close finds the Nat Geo Explorer returning to Canada’s Hudson Bay to try to find a specific wolf pack he has been keeping tabs on for nearly a decade. The hour-long special isn’t just a documentary about a pack, but a quest to find them and the changing climate conditions affecting wildlife across the region.

Dropping down in the frozen tundra, Bertie Gregory is paired with specialist guide Mike Reimer and Swampy Cree First Nations elder and specialist guide Albert "Butch" Saunders for this expedition. To fill runtime, we see them trying to cross rivers that should be frozen in ATVs, only to get stuck repeatedly. For a special called Wolves Up Close, it feels like it takes a while to actually get to the subject at hand.

The silver lining comes from other inhabitants of Hudson Bay. They encounter polar bears, who rely on ice for their winter hunt, and we see the negative effects this has on them. At the other end of the spectrum, the delayed freeze is a blessing for river otters, who can glide under thin layers of ice to find fish more easily.

When the wolves are found, the special's focus is on Kona, the bright white pack leader. In their quest for winter survival, his pack is after the biggest meal possible: moose. It might not sound like that dangerous a mission, but one swift kick from a distressed moose can be lethal, and they’re even harder to catch in deep snow.

Using drones to follow the pack and their hunt, viewers should know they will be spared anything particularly graphic. The edit will stop when prey is caught, and won’t return until long after the feast. Again, a silver lining appears. Gregory sets up camera traps near the carcass, showing how fruitful a moose can be and documenting the other critters that get a share when the wolves have had their fill, including foxes and wolverines. In nature, nothing goes to waste.

Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory also gets into the territorial nature of a wolf pack through the lens of a lone wolf. With beautiful cinematography, an acoustic score with woodwinds, and efforts to pull the audience into the filmmaking journey, it’s both educational and entertaining. Bertie Gregory is as entertaining and fun as ever, and aside from an off-roading excursion that shows the reality of filming in this environment, it’s mostly on-topic entertainment for an hour.

I give Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory 4 out of 5 stars.

Wolves Up Close with Bertie Gregory premieres Friday, November 6 at 9/8c on National Geographic and streams the same day on Disney+ and Hulu.