Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Condition was brand new, in new condition, still had the cellophane wrapping on it.. It did take about a week to receive the package, but was not a problem. I loved the series, one that I can watch again. and again. A nice addition to my collection.

This is a revival/follow-up to the 1980s Cosmos series created and hosted by Carl Sagan. This series was hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and curator of the Hayden Planetarium in NY, written by Sagan's widow Ann Druyan, who had collaborated with Sagan on the original series, and produced by the creator of Family Guy, Seth McFarlane.There are many similarities and many differences between that series and this one. Like the original series, this one covers many different topics in science, focusing on Astronomy, but covering chemistry, physics, biology, and more. Each episode deals with a different topic, and usually tells the story of one or more scientists that contributed to the field being discussed. The series did not focus on just the "big" names like Newton and Einstein but discussed other scientists and mathematicians like Halley, Hooke, Keppler, etc. In the original series, the stories of the historical figures were told using human actors, but in this series, many of the stories were told using animation and voice actors. I was not a fan of the animations when I first watched the show, but upon a subsequent viewing, they did not really bother me. And, of course, the CGI graphics are orders of magnitude better than what could be accomplished in the original series.For those who get the Blu-Ray, the A/V quality is fantastic. The visuals are fantastic (both the real and the CGI) and the sound is very good. The extras include an audio commentary on the first episode, with Druyan, producer Mitchell Cannold, producer/director Brannon Braga, producer Jason Clark and animation producer Kara Vallow, a 40-minute comic-con panel discussion, a 41-minute making-of documentary, a 35-minute portion of a dedication to Sagan at the Library of Congress, and interactive cosmic calendar.Like Sagan before him, Tyson is able to explain complicated topics in very simple terms without sounding like he is talking down to the audience. Of course, the audience for this series was much larger than that of the original series airing on Fox versus PBS. Even though the series aired at a time when science has been caught in the middle of the idiotic political divide the country has been marred in, for the most the show ignored all that and just presented the scientific fact and ignored science deniers. The one exception is the episode on climate change, which distilled the problem and the cause to to very simplistic terms without hyperbole, and included a clip of an interview from back in the 1960s in which an old guy who is certainly not a part of a "woke" mob and proving that scientists knew that the amount of greenhouse gasses being pumped into the atmosphere back then was a problem. And there were clips from the original Cosmos series in which Sagan described the concerns and what the possible consequences could be (and then showed how many of those consequences have started coming to pass).One thing I wish the show would have done a bit better is explain the scale of the cosmic calendar (e.g., that 1 month corresponded to approximately 1.2 billion years, 1 day corresponded to approximately 40 million years, and 1 second corresponded to approximately 440 years) so that when Tyson said that something took place at midnight on December 31st, people did not actually think he meant something happened midnight on some random December 31st, but instead meant about 3600 - 4000 years ago. Probably the best moment of the series is when they did a CGI zoom out starting on Earth through the solar system to the galaxy level to the famous "pale blue dot" narrative by Carl Sagan. Overall, the series is wonderful and definitely in my must-watch category.

I grew up a child of the 80's, with a fascination for the twinkling lights in the night sky above me. I read what I could from my elementary school's library, but a lot of it didn't come together in a complete picture until Cosmos opened that door and made me better understand our place in the grand scheme of everything.If you are looking for hard science and numbers, this isn't where you should be looking. There are text books and hard documentaries a-plenty on public television. This show however is a great primer for those who are looking at an easy way to introduce a younger audience to the wonders of science, nature, and human history as it relates to our place in the universe. If watched with said younger audience, it would certainly help to spark questions that perhaps would get them to think a little more about the bigger world around them.Even if you are someone who already has a firm grasp of the cosmos at large, there is a lot to appreciate in some of its history and nature lessons which even I found, while perhaps not profoundly educational, a good refresher and still managed to learn a thing or two about some key people and events. Can most people honestly claim to know everything about Ibn al-Haytham, tardigrades, or Marie Tharp?A direct comparison with the original 1980 broadcast of this voice of the universe is inevitable, however Neil deGrasse Tyson is no Carl Sagan and Alan Silvestri is no Vangelis. I do not mean to say that Neil and Alan are in some way lessers of Carl and Vangelis, but rather, their purpose is a little bit different.The original Cosmos had a musical quality about its presentation with Carl Sagan as its vocals, a delivery I describe as being a heart moving experience that makes you think. Listening to the music and hearing Carl's own written words from his seminal work is something to be personally felt to understand. But there is a certain nostalgia to the sensation that may be a bit passe for some younger generations.Cosmos 2014 however has a more direct, practical approach to its delivery. It's not trying to tug at those same emotional notes right off the bat and it's certainly not trying to capture the magic the same way and I greatly appreciate that. It does connect to the original series on a personal level (Neil deGrasse Tyson's first meeting with Carl Sagan) and uses some of the same imagery from time to time (Ship of the Imagination, the opening cliffside scene, the cosmic calendar). Various topics about the age of the universe, nature, and science are covered in its own informative but not too heavy way, which is again perfect for a general audience, providing enough general answers but leaving plenty of room for independent discovery for the curious.The musical score too is not as heavy was it was in the original series, accompaying the narrative without being very emotional except maybe in a few key moments when it wants to be. It is somewhat repetitive however, which is fine since it's not trying to carry the series.This is definitely not the same Cosmos of yesteryear. But it does not try to be, which is perfectly fine by me. Perhaps some day soon when my nephews finally look up at the night sky and can ask me what those twinkling lights are, I'll let them decide which approach to the Cosmos they prefer.(There IS a series out there that has a much more "Cosmos 1980" feel that was done in very recent years, which I also deeply appreciate, but out of deference to this series I will not mention directly in this review.)