For those of you who have watched it, what do you think of the reincarnation of the "Cosmos" series, hosted by the always great Neil DeGrasse Tyson?

I am loving it. Predictably so, because Tyson is amazing anyway, but still.

He’s just a touch heavy-handed with the Sagan worship, but I suppose it’s understandable—it was his series after all, and he was a big influence on Tyson. And I like Sagan, too, so it’s all good.

I’m glad it’s giving me something educational, informative, and enjoyable to share with my son, who is just a touch obsessed with space.

Excellent. Superb. High quality show.

And he has no patience with the creationists – he socked it to them last episode.

NDT is brilliant. His passion and ability to describe complex concepts in such a simple way makes him perfect for the Cosmos reboot. I’ve only seen the first two episodes so far, and I love it. It’s a rare event that tv is on in my house, and it has been an opportunity to view it with my kids. They seemed to enjoy it and have been talking about it since.

Any show that pisses off creationists is great. I really loved the 2nd episode. Can’t wait till Sunday.

This series has really taken space exploration/explanation to a whole new level. I just wish I could get my kids to watch it with me.

For those without TV in their homes, you can watch it on Hulu, or on the Fox website. Fox website hasn’t had commercials so far, Hulu does. A lot. Annoyingly so.

^ Works for Americans only. I think in Canada, access is restricted to the most recent episode only (on the Global TV site).

If you have Google Chrome, download the Hola browser extension. I use it to watch BBC iPlayer stuff.

Or you can google for any pirate streaming website.

@Seek: “Fox website hasn’t had commercials so far, Hulu does. A lot. Annoyingly so.”

We have been watching it from “On Demand” on FIOS. Every commercial is a commercial for Cosmos. My daughter was joking that there was a chance that one of the commercials could be interrupted for a commercial about Cosmos.

I love it, but I think because in the years since the Sagan’s series, CGI has become so ubiquitous that I find myself more interested in what Tyson says than impressed by the fancy visuals. I also don’t much care for the character animation style.

Side comment: I’m sure evolution, climate change and other science facts were debated in Sagan’s time, but now that such debate is commonplace and the doubters so vehement, some of the magic of the show is gone for me. It’s hard to hear Tyson talk about anything without wondering when the next science doubter’s stupid denial will pop up in the headlines.

I loved the original Cosmos and I’m a huge fan of Neil DeGrasse Tyson so I’m enjoying this. I wish I could say I was learning more from this show as most of it is pretty basic stuff. I also realize the show isn’t for people like me per say, it’s more geared to educate the young/uneducated about science and to that effect I think it’s doing an excellent job.

Mediocre. Generic.

The music is like something out of a sappy Disney cartoon.

The animated segments feel a bit cheap.

It has none of the atmosphere and sense of journey that the original series conveyed so brilliantly.

The editing is awful. NDT never gets to go into details or elaborate. The scenes are short and snap abruptly from one to the next—this seems to be some facet of practically every US produced programme I’ve seen in recent years.

It’s sort of enjoyable in the way some generic science documentary by Nova is enjoyable. It doesn’t hold a candle to the original Cosmos, and NDT is not Carl Sagan—no matter how hard he tries to be.

@Kropotkin: “The music is like something out of a sappy Disney cartoon.”

Absolutely. The music is horrible. But what were they going for here? While I enjoy music-free information and prefer to allow the inspiration come more organically by the sheer facts being presented, I think the goal is to reach as large an audience as possible. If most kids are being raised watching Disney garbage (it really is awful), then this is likely their sensibility. In that sense, the new Cosmos has the best chance of reaching the unwashed masses and possibly inspiring a few of those kids who would rather go play video games to watch something about science (and maybe more).

I’ll take issue with your assessment of NDT, but this seems like just a personal preference thing. My kids would likely get through 5 minutes of the Sagan Cosmos before feeling as though they were at school. And as much as like Sagan, his accent and appearance is an acquired taste. Once you can get past those things, you are able to actually hear his amazing words.

I love the original Cosmos, and have it on VHS. I’ve tried SO MANY TIMES to get my kid to watch it with me. And while I love Sagan’s voice (“mBill-ee-yuns and mBill-ee-yuns of years…”), I can see why a 5 year old born in 2008 would have a hard time being as excited as his 80s-child mama about that show.

However, one episode of the NDT version and he’s all “Can we watch more Space show?”

@Kropotkin I watched about half of the original Cosmos on Netflix(before they removed it) and while I did enjoy parts of it, it got very boring and dull at times. Sagan would ramble on far too long about certain things. Also, the original Cosmos was very repetitive. Each episode seemed like a rehash of the last.

The new series is great because they focus on different subjects in each episode. The different episodes don’t feel recycled like the original did. Also, NDT doesn’t ramble on like Sagan.

You can tell he’s really acting like Sagan using his gentle mannerisms and the way he delivers sentences. It’s mildly annoying. But still very good overall.

Through the wormhole is way better though.

My daughter and I are hooked. We haven’t missed an episode. I got the free app on my tablet.

It is important for me to state that I do not watch television. This is the first series I have committed to watch in many decades. This is a big deal.

Having said that, I will voice a mild complaint. In last week’s episode, he sometimes switched from metric to Imperial measurements, and it was a tad confusing. Pick one system and stick to it, please.

Haven’t watched a full episode and I’m not really interested in it. As much as I dig NDT the presentation just doesn’t appeal to me, and I’m guessing (since it’s on prime time on a major network and trying to reach as large an audience as possible) that it’s all pretty basic stuff. Probably would have dug it as a kid though.

I will just leave this here.

^ I love the T-shirt!

What is the context of that image? NDT’s first experience with LSD ? :P

Just that he was a buff and cool nerd.

Very sexy, indeed.

[... I love his covert yet overt jabs against young earth creationism.]
Maybe it is not the content but he tickles the ears of those who want a particular message.

Anything Seth Mcfarlane touches turns to gold.

Also, all those that bitch about Fox’s “right wing” religious agenda can now shut the fuck up.

^ Really? The addition of a decent science mini-series totaling approximately 9.75 hours is enough for us to ignore the roughly 17 years (or 149,000-hour) existence of Fox news and its agenda? I’m confused.

^Both sides have been represented.

/t.

:) I couldn’t agree more.

science/reality: 9.75 hours
other: 149,000 hours

Wow.

Would you do me the courtesy of explaining to me how my original reply is unrelated?

“What do you think of the reincarnation of the “Cosmos” series?”

Personally I believe that Creationism is a big ball of hooey but I’m fair minded enough to think others should be allowed to espouse it if they wish.

Fox (the network) often has good, non-right-wing television. Immediately springing to mind are The X Files and House, M.D.

This is completely separate from and unrelated to Fox News, which is vile swill.

@Seek You can’t forget The Simpsons and Married with Children.

^ I was trying to remember which network The Simpsons was on. I know they made fun of the Fox Network a lot, but couldn’t remember if it actually played there. And Married with Children I have very little cognizant memory of. ^_^

OH!

FIREFLY was on Fox. Fox fucked them over, but it did, technically, air there. Wasn’t Mad TV on Fox, too?

From what I have seen it is really good and now that Walking Dead is through for the season, maybe I can actually see the entire show on Sunday evenings.

@Seek

If I recall Fox News once tried to sue Fox Network over a segment of ‘the Simpsons’ mocking Fox News.