‘Babies’ Review: Clinical Netflix Doc Series About Toddlers Puts Academics Over Experiences

Babies can’t really talk.At least not in the way that documentary participants tend to.

It’s an unfortunate fact that puts the Netflix series “Babies” at a bit of a disadvantage — making a six-part series about toddlers means that it’s impossible to get traditional input from its main subjects.

What “Babies” chooses instead to fill that time is an unexpected blend of toddler reaction shots and an overestimation of the rousing nature of peer-reviewed studies on adolescent behavior.At the outset, “Babies” touts that it will follow the development of a select, cross-continental group of infants as they develop from their opening days after birth through their many early developmental milestones.

One by one, each successive newborn is introduced, along with their parents, spread out mainly across England and rural New England.What comes to dominate most of “Babies” is a science-heavy dose of “tell, not show,

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