Sunday, March 09, 2014

watched Neil reboot Cosmos

Watched the launch of the new Cosmos series on Global TV.

I had heard about Obama's introduction. I thought it was good, short, invigorating, with passion.

The program I thought overall was very good visually. Somehow, less words than I was expecting...

I did not like the portrayal of the solar system. They made the asteroid and Kuiper belts look crowded, and even dodged some objects. That's incorrect. I would have liked to see more myth-breaking. They have an opportunity to set a lot of records straight.

I detected a hint of resistance regarding the status Pluto. Perhaps they should have mentioned one or two of the other dwarf planets.

Sound in space? I did not enjoy to swooshing and swishing. They should leave that to worlds with atmospheres. But I know why they did it.

The blocking was weird. Staring at Neil's back? Was this symbolic? It made him seem superior, like he was a leader. Maybe that's how he sees himself, blazing the trail. I wanted to yell, "Down in front."

I found Neil a bit... heavy handed. A bit theatrical. Never got that from Carl. Watching the old Cosmos, I felt like Carl was talking to me directly, as if I was sitting across his kitchen table. Carl always seemed humble. And in awe. Only when Neil showed the agenda book and spoke of his Ithaca trip did I connect with him.

The first show. Not bad. We will make the comparisons. We won't stop. If we view it on its own, will it touch a new generation of young people and inspire them? I hope so.

1 comment:

SharminC said...

Carl Sagan and Neil Tyson are two different people with the same intention to capture the attention of their current growing generation. They were talking to two very different society and mindset. I personally didn't even think of comparing the two shows, original and the new. I actually expected the two shows to be different from each other. Sagan is Sagan and Tyson is Tyson. I think if this had more words than visuals, the videogame playing, visual effect loving generation may have found the show boring. After all the production crew is trying to capture the attention of the people who watch FOX programs! But yes, the information must always be accurate; there should be absolutely no compromise in the name of making it visually appealing.

Individual viewers' perception is different too. It didn't appear to me that Dr. Tyson was portraying himself as a superior being. I have watched and heard and read him quite a bit; he never appeared to me in that manner.

I have enjoyed Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey very much! Looking forward to watch rest of the episodes and to acquire the blu-ray set when it comes out, to place it side by side of the set of DVDs of the original Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.