On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 2:59 PM, Kevin M. <[email protected]> wrote:
> This week's episode had two focuses, the first being to teach those of us > with a penis that women have brains. Seriously, the point couldn't have > been hammered into us any more directly unless the words "women have > brains" had been written on a brick which was then smashed into the > collective skull of man. > > The second point concerned the fate of the stars, including our own sun, > which will one day lose its proverbial spark. On this point, Tyson casually > expressed his hope that mankind will have found a new home before that > happens, then he moved on to other things. And that pissed me off. > > The biggest difference between the Sagan and Tyson versions of this series > is not the science itself, but the tone in which it is presented. The 2014 > Cosmos is, frankly, an angrier Cosmos. And the points made, right or wrong, > are made with caveman-like oversimplicity. > > Religion bad. > > Woman good. > > Corporations bad. > > Here, in the 8th installment, the show had a chance to insert a powerful > justification for the importance of space travel, but instead the focus was > on the animation of exploding stars. Assuming the series exists to try make > the wonder of the universe something for people to aspire to again, it was > a waste for them not to include an impassioned (oversimplistic) plea for > manned space exploration. > I thought this episode was more coherent than some previous episodes. I think that is because it was all about astrophysics and Tyson is more at home with that subject and you can feel his passion as he explains what we are seeing. The story of the Harvard Computers is an important one because the work they were tasked with doing was close to secretarial work and nobody expected them to make groundbreaking discoveries. Even though it was after Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie, science was still considered a male pursuit. I think it was important for this series to give credit to Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Cecilia Payne. The second part of the episode was the best use of special effects I have seen in the series. The animation had to show processes that take thousands to millions of years to carry out and keep it on a level that is understandable to the viewer. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
