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Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
- Thread starter Brahma
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Seems to be a pleasant, evidence-based show (surprisingly) on fox that's appropriately aimed at the junior/senior high school level. I'd enjoy the show even more if my TV was not antiquated.
Tarrant
<Prior Amod>
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Same here, both myself and my father in law (I got him hooked on the show) came away saying that exact thing.
Mudcrush Durtfeet
Hungry Ogre
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So far their SFX company has done a pretty good job. I only saw one shot tonight that made me laugh: Neil was talking about Halley's comet returning in 2061 and it showed the comet passing Earth at such a close distance it would have literally smashed into the planet.
Then again, most shows like this get it wrong visually. Like when you see an asteroid field and they show more than one rock on the screen at a time...
Then again, most shows like this get it wrong visually. Like when you see an asteroid field and they show more than one rock on the screen at a time...
iannis
Musty Nester
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iannis
Musty Nester
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That actually surprised me in the first episode. They were talking about "Mars, and then the asteroid field" and they showed the asteroid field out of Star Wars.
I honestly expected that they'd show like one rock and make the point that the asteroid field is actually not at all as dense as you think.
But then 10 seconds later I forgot that I was surprised by that omission -- so how many fucks did I actually give?
There are a thousand different ways to do that shot, and they chose one that got it completely wrong. Of course last night's show was directed by Brannon Braga; that guy did the same shit when he was working on Star Trek.It's was a representation of it returning to visual range of the earth.
Talking about it doing so and then just having it in the normal black void of space wouldn't have had the same effect and honestly is a bit nit picky.
In science fiction movies/television I expect them to get it wrong, but this is fucking Cosmos.
ShakyJake
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Cybsled
Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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NDT has already gone on record that it's been a challenge to balance the scientific bits with the entertainment/presentation bits in the show...it sounds as though he picked his battles and I imagine the comet bit was one he didn't feel was worth expending energy over. Don't forget this is the guy who got mad Titanic had the wrong stars in the sky.
I watched Cosmos when it was on originally in 1980. My dad was an high school earth science teacher, and he was video taping them (on fucking betamax!) and showing them to his classes. And I gotta admit, I fell asleep during every single episode. I was 6, but I remember being bored to tears and Carl Sagan's voice put me to sleep. Of course since then I grew up and now I fucking love the original Cosmos. I usually watch it once a year.
New Cosmos is good. It's actually pretty much what I had hoped for and expected. It's flashy enough to get the luddites to stare, and that's half the battle.
iannis
Musty Nester
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There's a slant in this one that didn't exist in the other. It's subtle but pervasive. They really were walking a line in that comets episode. Sagan knew there were flat earthers. He didn't care. He wasn't making the show for them, or to refute them. He wasn't smug.
I hope now that they've made their point they'll just ignore the fundamentalist perspective. You lose that game just by playing it. Considering the nature of this show it is important to recognize that slant. Its there. Not the slant that "science, bitches". That's subject. The slant is, "Texas is stupid". When you have something important to say (hey, it happens) you let the idiots argue amongst themselves after you're done.
But even if they don't, it's still a better show than all those "sciency" programs that run on cable. "GALACTIC EXPLOSIONS! SECRETS OF THE BLACK HOLE! THE PYRAMID MYSTERY! LOOK, PRETTY PICTURES AND DUMB SHIT!"
They'll have to try to stoop to that level, and I do not expect them to. I didn't love the cartoon Newton/Halley exchanges, but I really like that they didn't gloss over Newton's less fruitful pursuits.