(Credits: Netflix)

Documentaries are regularly counted among the most-watched titles on Netflix, with the majority of them tending to focus on murder, criminality, death, despair, and misery. For anyone who doesn’t fancy something decidedly dark, though, Rob Lowe has arrived to answer the call.

The actor’s light, breezy, and easy-going cadence will be a welcome respite from the doom and gloom that permeates many of the streaming service’s original docs, and the added bonus is that the upcoming Inside the Mind of a Dog will appeal to animal lovers everywhere.

Of course, Lowe and Netflix already have previous creating canine-related content together, with the six-time Golden Globe nominee previously playing the lead role of John Marshall and executive producing 2023’s biographical drama Dog Gone, which follows a father/son duo hiking through the mountains to recover their lost family pet.

Continuing on in that vein, Inside the Mind of a Dog is the spiritual sequel to 2022’s documentary Inside the Mind of a Cat, albeit with one obvious alteration. The latter was a minor hit on the platform after digging into the burning questions everyone wanted answered about domesticated felines, so it’s reasonable to assume its successor will do much the same.

According to Netflix, Inside the Mind of a Dog with “explore the ancient and complex human/dog relationship, reveal cutting-edge research and offer at-home tips for dog owners everywhere,” while narrowing its focus to several “main characters” who’ll provide the narrative backbone.

There’s a “brilliant, super-trained border collie, a precocious pug, and a loveable rescue mutt” to melt hearts and warm the cockles, with the human contingent being represented by a “team of elite canine experts from across the globe” who’ll “dive deep into our best friends’ hidden mind to answer everyone’s biggest canine questions.”

Prestige drama it most definitely is not, but it would be an understatement to suggest a hefty percentage of Netflix’s 200+ million subscribers around the world are dog people, and the streamer can’t rely on serial killers and unsolved murders forever to power its production line of documentarian content.

Toss in renowned dog lover and Dog Gone star Lowe into the mix, and it promises to be an easy watch that marries the adorable antics of humanity’s four-legged friends with genuine scientific research. Inside the Mind of a Dog will premiere on August 9th, 2024, where it’ll no doubt end up as appointment viewing for anyone with a soft spot for the animal kingdom.