I'm more stunned that they aren't calling Neil an Uncle Tom for wasting money on science.
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I'm a little upset that I missed out. Hopefully they offer the first episode online.
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The most FUN book I ever listened too.



From fthe lever to quantum mechanics, it really covers it all. It was like 75 hours on audiobook.

If DGT manages a 1/10 of that book, it'll be phenomenal, and I have faith he will.

If anyone.
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I was pretty disappointed in it. Preachy as all hell. I kind of expect that from Seth MacFarland however.
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replays on National Geographic channel. on Monday.
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I don't have that channel.

Thanks for the heads up though.
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I am only 45 min in, but I have to agree. The spaceship observer gambit, and the animations are not up to par. I urge everyone to listen to or read Bryson, who gets to the same places, but in a much more reasoned manner than NGT.

It is onerous, but it's a tale as good as GRRMartin ever devised, and so well told as to never lagged. It tells the same stories, but with the nuances and the rationales to the naysayers as to actually STRENGTHEN their tales. Of discovery and criticism.

I really thought NGT would hew closer to legitimate review than he did. But thus far it's falling into Veggie Tales territory.
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I've seen Jack Chick Tracts that were less preachy and more intellectually consistent than tonight's Cosmos. NGT and MacFarland just took a giant crap on Sagan tonight. I had really high hopes for this. Hopefully it will get better.
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What exactly were you disappointed by? You seem to be in an incredibly tiny minority. You'll have to include Sagan's widow in that group too, I guess she took a crap on her late husband as well.

As far as preachiness or taking shots at pseudoscience, Sagan sternly did plenty of that, he just saved it for the 3rd or 4th episode rather than the first.
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I don't know what you don't like about the spaceship, it was obviously a nod towards the spaceship in the original series, and I don't know that they could have done much of a better job rendering it.

As far as showing historical scenes, they actually discussed that in interviews. They did not want actors in powdered wigs again, and they didn't want a standard cartoon. They chose to illustrate them in the graphic novel style, and I think that style works well for a subject like this, cartoons seem a little more less-serious and more light-hearted to me. If you were hoping to see a cartoon or actors, you'll just have to get used to the choice they made, the graphic novel approach is a fine choice of artistic style.
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My 8 & 9 year old boys sat there and loved it. Had to make my 8 year old go to bed halfway through and he was ticked because he wanted to watch it.
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The only issue i had with Cosmos is the the Spaceship CGI Fest. I didn't like the way it was executed. I could've done with out the emphasis on Neil's imaginary spaceship. Maybe if the CGI was better....but Neil looked so out of place with it.

The way they illustrated Galaxy clusters and Multiverses though.....Mind = Blown.

I got toked up to watch this and i was tripping bawls for a minute.....had never felt so insignificant in my life after watching the way they displayed Galaxies and Multiverses.
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Haven't watched it yet, but I've never been a big fan of deGrasse Tyson. To me he has always come across as as much condescending as he is brilliant, so I've never particularly enjoyed watching him. I'll still give it a look though.
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Same here. I can stand him but his personality is a bit off.

There aren't very many science personalities that aren't totally awkward though. Sagan was a rare bird.
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Yeah, scientists as a rule are not very.... "telegenic", to say the least.

Tyson is probably about as good as it gets right now, he's the only serious scientist with enough of a personality and sense of humor to be a frequent guest on evening talk shows.
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