Meerkat Manor

So one day, someone thought, "Hey, how about we follow a bunch of meerkats out in the wild doing their day-to-day activities and make a TV show out of it!" And somehow, it works. Meerkat Manor is currently Animal Planet's top rated show, and its success has led to the network creating more documentary shows revolving around different species' of animals.

Of course, when one thinks of a Nature Documentary, what usually comes to mind is a narrator covertly explaining what is going on in a matter-of-fact fashion. (Either that, or Steve Irwin wrestling with crocs.) Meerkat Manor, however, is very much unlike these type of documentaries. Instead, it dramatizes the meerkats' lives in a way more reminiscent with a TV drama, inviting the viewers into becoming much more emotionally invested than what is considered the norm in a documentary. As a result, it can actually be quite devastating for some viewers once Reality Ensues.

Meerkat Manor's success has led to a release of a prequel film chronicling the life of the show's "main character", along with an assortment of merchandise, including an upcoming video game!

This show provides examples of:

 * Dashed Plotline: Each episode spans a month or two of time, as people who watch a marathon will feel like the seasons are changing every half-hour or so. A lot of uneventful activity must hit the cutting room floor.
 * Downer Ending - The original show. Next Generation is NOT the original show.
 * Due to their short life spans, pretty much any meerkat or family of meerkats is going to face this at some point. In the case of Mozart it was a total Tear Jerker was left alone and not modified for the narrative.
 * Left alone? That wasn't even actually how she died. They found her inside a hole in a tree after a bird of prey had killed her, but decided that was too gruesome to show on screen.
 * Mozart's group was a downer from the start. Carlos died as the only male in the group, and soon only Mozart and her two sisters were left. As the other two died, she met a male from another group. He was going to bring her into his group (although they may have killed her there), but there was a storm that prevented it for the night. The next day when the male saw her, she was dead.
 * Also for the Next Generation. The last episode shows Rocket Dog recovering from a snake bite, which is what killed her mother Flower. Several months later, she became roadkill.
 * Dramatization
 * The Film of the Series: Chronicled Flower's rise to glory. It actually used Manipulative Editing and meerkat "actors" to play the meerkats from the show--the actual Whiskers appear at the end, thanks to Flower dying during production.
 * Genre Busting
 * Heroic Sacrifice - R.I.P. Flower
 * Hey Its That Voice - Bill Nighy is the narrator of the series in the UK. Trope subverted since you may not realize it's him untill the credits.
 * Australia got the guy who narrated Aussie Big Brother. From bogans to meerkats - it's quite a step up.
 * The US version got Sean Astin from Lord of the Rings and The Goonies.
 * The Hero Dies
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: Played with, since home videos exist; but people follow the drama from the researchers themselves because the show has been out of production for a few years and meerkat life moves on.
 * Manipulative Editing - Fans who try to keep track of what's going on in the Kalahaari Meerkat Project which follows the Whiskers and numerous other families practically need a roadmap to figure out what meerkat goes by what name on TV, since the names often are not kept between the show and the project. Made more frustrating that one name on TV can be several Meerkats; see next trope for why.
 * Mozart's death.
 * Never Say Die - Mostly subverted, but there are exceptions. Because real Meerkats have a tendency to just disappear anticlimactically and never be seen again, some names in the narration are attributed to multiple meerkats so as to keep the drama flowing. The name Carlos has been given to maybe as many as a dozen meerkats who have played the role of The Charmer over the year
 * Left Hanging: In the last episode of The Next Generation, Rocket Dog was showing improvement with her snake bite. Not only were the KMP planning a season 5, but also a special about her recovery. Her untimely death prevented the special, and would have been too much to explain for between seasons.
 * The Other Darrin: Carlos has been the name given to quite a few of the "wandering male meerkats".
 * Also, Mitch. Everywhere, all the time.