Yes. Incredible. With Cosmos, Carl Sagan opened my mind up to the incredible wonders of space and what's out there a few years ago. It's up there with Planet Earth on the scale of seriously remarkable television series. Seeing this continue with none other than Ann Druyan and Steven Soter themselves gets a resounding hell yeah from me.
i didn't find Planet Earth to be nearly as compelling as David Attenborough's Life of Mammals/Birds/Insects. the former was constantly trying to wow me with its photography (with narration reminding me to be wowed), while the latter had more profound things to say about ecology and evolution.
Y'know, I've never actually seen much of Cosmos, but I'd like to put in a plug for my favourite 80s documentary series, David Attenborough's Life On Earth.
Unless they get one big, honkin' corporate sponsor, any commercial-television follow-on to Cosmos will be broken up by commercials. Cosmos was done on PBS, which meant they could write for longer-duration episodes. 12-15 minute morsels will be more difficult to follow.
And if they assume that people's attention span are about that of house plants (which sums up Fox sports and the rapid-cut crap), it's going to be rather lightweight. If this is coupled with the "show rather than talk about" trend I've seen in Nova, it's going to fail as it'll take too much time to get the points across.
I think I'm most blown away by Seth MacFarlane's involvement in putting this together. I didn't know the guy had such a deep respect for science and a desire to impact our understanding of it.
I only got around to seeing Cosmos when I was in graduate school, but I could see why it would inspire people to get into science. (For myself, I blame Isaac Asimov.)
One problem I have with a lot of science programs today is how they don't make it clear how we know what we know, or who figured it out. Science is presented as a bunch of facts rather than as something that was developed by people (who always have interesting stories). Carl Sagan didn't make that mistake, nor did Asimov, and I hope this new Cosmos sequel also takes the historical and human perspective.
[+] [-] markbao|14 years ago|reply
If you haven't watched Cosmos already, I highly, highly suggest it. Start with Episode 1: http://www.hulu.com/watch/63317/cosmos-the-shores-of-the-cos...
[+] [-] frossie|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vonhonkington|14 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] vynch|14 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] jleyank|14 years ago|reply
And if they assume that people's attention span are about that of house plants (which sums up Fox sports and the rapid-cut crap), it's going to be rather lightweight. If this is coupled with the "show rather than talk about" trend I've seen in Nova, it's going to fail as it'll take too much time to get the points across.
[+] [-] cal5k|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rbanffy|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] icandoitbetter|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] doctoboggan|14 years ago|reply
So if he is good enough for Sagan, he is good enough for me.
[+] [-] troymc|14 years ago|reply
One problem I have with a lot of science programs today is how they don't make it clear how we know what we know, or who figured it out. Science is presented as a bunch of facts rather than as something that was developed by people (who always have interesting stories). Carl Sagan didn't make that mistake, nor did Asimov, and I hope this new Cosmos sequel also takes the historical and human perspective.
[+] [-] brian_c|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lazylland|14 years ago|reply