Fox Greenlights "Cosmos" for 2013 13-Part Series (1 Viewer)

[Ockeghem]

Jason,Your post has made me very curious about this show now.

 

[Jason_V]

Give it a watch, Scott. It's a mix of biology, history, astronomy...maybe even some metaphysics. Worse comes to worse, you don't like it and don't watch past episode 1...but I'm sure you would have learned something in that one episode.

 

[Ockeghem]

Jason,I may do just that. What day and time is it on please?

 

[Jason_V]

I think Sunday at 9...but I Hulu it, so I really have no idea. It's also on the Fox website right now (both episodes).

 

[Walter Kittel]

The content regarding the extinction events reminded me of the old George Carlin - Saving the Planet routine.

(NSFW Language)



- Walter.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I hadn't yet heard the technical glitch explanation when I made my last post. . .not ascribing to malevolence that which can be ascribed to incompetence is a principle near and dear to my heart! I'm glad to hear that it was nothing.

 

[DaveF]

I hadn't yet heard the technical glitch explanation when I made my last post. . .not ascribing to malevolence that which can be ascribed to incompetence is a principle near and dear to my heart! I'm glad to hear that it was nothing.

Understandable. Even Ars Technica's long-time science editor John Timmer jumped to the conspiratorial explanation to start.

 

[Jeffery_H]

Understandable. Even Ars Technica's long-time science editor John Timmer jumped to the conspiratorial explanation to start.

This drum has been beaten to death by the liberal secular-progressives as they love to think it's somehow conservative Christian's that are always conspiring. As was reported earlier and even I had mentioned it was a simple mistake, nothing more. Most of us, even Christian's that do NOT believe in evolution, want ALL the information out there regardless. Let each person make their own determination on what they choose to believe in, we are all free to do that.

 

[Jeffery_H]

I'm liking the show, but don't feel so far it's going to be on par or surpass the great Sagen shows that he did. Personally, I liked him better, despite the fact there wasn't as much special effects. The information and how it was presented by Sagen just made me want to see more and more. The new ones seem more heavy on the CGI and wow factor with a more average presentation by comparison.

 

[Paul D G]

I'm late on this... didn't notice the thread. The show is on FOX on Sundays, and NatGeo channel through the rest of the week.

My kids and I are completely riveted when I put this show on. And, due to our excessive use of DVR, always ask to watch another one when it's over. Every week I have to tell them they have to wait.

 

[Steve Armbrust]

I'm watching it and I want to like it. But I think it's a bit too dumbed down. And I don't think anyone will be doing Tyson imitations in the future. He kind of grates on me after a while with his breathiness.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

You have to listen to him with the sub turned on. Very soothing.

 

[John Lee_275604]

If this stuff interests you to the point of wanting a lot more, there are two things I can't recommend enough.

A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson. Covers all fields of scientific inquiry in a laconic but detail filled manner. The book in pretty much linear in the development of the sciences. IIRC [I listened to the audiobook 5-6 years ago] it neglects the Persian developments, or what it included wasn't memorable to me. But it takes you from The Big Bang, though the earth's formation, the epochs, the mass extinctions, etc., continuing to Archimedes on to present, well 2003, covering botany, archeology, chemistry, etc. in addition to the more central math, physics and astronomy. Richard Matthews' narration is exceedingly pleasant and maintains your attention, if you choose the audiobook route.

Clocks in at just under 18 hours.

http://www.audible.com/pd/History/A-Short-History-of-Nearly-Everything-Audiobook/B002V0KFPW

The Teaching Company - Particle Physics for Non-Physicists - Very Detailed, but not wonky or equation intensive. Description is pretty straightforward, it's an explanation of how we came to the Standard Model we presently have. Pretty much the format of a lecture for a lay audience.

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=1247

As you will see at the links, prices of the two vary substantially, so I would suggest consuming them in order so you can ponder if you want a lot more info about particle physics than you get initially.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

The Great Courses cycles all their products in and out of major discounts (70% off or more) on a regular basis, so if you want a particular course, just keep an eye out and order it when it's on sale. Also get on their email list for sale announcements.

I think it explains why they do it this way somewhere on their site, but I forget the reasoning.

 

[mattCR]

I've got to say this is the kind of programming I'm always grateful to be on TV. My kids love this.. it's exciting in so many ways to see real science get some praise on TV, where we can discuss research and theory and implications.
The first few episodes have been great - not as good as the Carl Sagan episodes yet, but great. There isn't a lot of programming left on the major broadcast networks that I view as truly public service material. Networks like History Channel moved to showing 'fake' history 'Bigfoot'/'Ghost Hunter' stuff, Science channel has a bunch of non-science.. so it's good to see something like Cosmos back on the air!

 

[SamT]

I'm loving this series and have never seen Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Is it really better than this and why?

 

[mattCR]

I'm loving this series and have never seen Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Is it really better than this and why?

Part of what makes Sagan series really unique is that Sagan was able to capture so many things and turn them into a common fund of knowledge. That's very hard to accomplish today... as much as we'd like it not to be, there is a lot of politic and other issues injected into the discussion of science because a lot of the storylines that a Sagan could cover have already been done.
That said, this version of Cosmos is unique and in production values I find it superior to the original. I think for a lot of people it's nostalgia that helps, Sagan was able to inspire a lot of people to think about science to focus on what science means to our world and why science is important. There are a lot of people that hope that this resurgence of Cosmos can at least inspire a few people to the awesome world that science opens up to us.

I'm loving it. I'll definitely buy this on Blu-Ray when it comes out, because it's going to be a beautiful disc to watch

 

[Joe_H]

My biggest problem with this is even when Tyson is excited about something, his voice is pretty boring. Other than that though I find it excellent.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

My biggest problem with this is even when Tyson is excited about something, his voice is pretty boring. Other than that though I find it excellent.

You could pretty much say the same thing about Carl Sagan.