Cosmos, 2014 Edition, starring the multiverse and Neil deGrasse Tyson

Pages

First episode just aired tonight on Fox, and will re-air tomorrow in 181 countries on National Geographic. Comments and discussion below!

Edit:
Episode 1 is streaming (at least in the US) legally on Hulu, now:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/604551

Checking in and would love to hear everyone's thoughts!

Crossposting from the NDT thread:

Great first episode! I really liked the hand-drawn animation parts and thought they were quite effective. Great nods to the original series, too. I'm really looking forward to more.

Definitely a good start. As a fan of the history of mysticism, I loved seeing the Giordano Bruno segment. Most of the show felt pitched at a less scientifically literate audience than me, and that's probably the sweet spot it should be aiming at. My wife was incredibly upset when it ended, despite knowing that there's 12 more hours to come.

The end segment on Carl Sagan and his meeting with NDGT was very touching, and I was misting up.

Waiting for it to be encoded so I can watch it. Stupid having to go to the store!

Tanglebones wrote:

The end segment on Carl Sagan and his meeting with NDGT was very touching, and I was misting up.

Yeah, even though I've heard that story from NDT multiple times, it was still touching, mostly due to the visual aspect (showing the book Sagan autographed) and a great way to end the inaugural episode IMO.

Linked to this thread from the TV thread. So hopefully people will find and discuss.

Stele wrote:

Linked to this thread from the TV thread. So hopefully people will find and discuss.

I imagine it'll really get traffic after tomorrow, when it pops up on all the streaming/downloady places.

Absolutely loved the first show. I'm a fan of NOVA, so I knew Tyson would be a great host, but his inclusion exceeded my expectations. He fit like a hand & glove into the Cosmos ethos.

The production values were off the charts, bringing to life scientific facts & knowledge such as the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. The animated segments were darned impressive too.

I'm really looking forward to future episodes.

It was a wonderful start to the show, and like everyone else here I can't wait to see more. NDGT is a wonderful host, indeed.

Good job. Nice tribute to Sagan too, including the line "We are all made of star stuff."

Enjoyed it, but I'm really excited to get into more detail.

I just finished watching the show and it was quite good. I am looking forward to seeing future episodes.

psu_13 wrote:

Good job. Nice tribute to Sagan too, including the line "We are all made of star stuff."

It was an excellent tribute, and I think it was easy to see that NDT was getting a bit choked up remembering his friends.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but some of the music during the tribute was from the movie "Contact."

Very, very fitting.

Loved the first episode. And NDT was brilliant as host.

My one complaint? I know FOX will bring in a bigger audience but the commercials were a beating. Here's hoping NatGeo will have fewer commercial disruptions and maybe slightly different editing.

10 minutes in and I was tearing up at Voyager 1. Seriously, Voyager. Dammit, there I go again.

Tanglebones wrote:

The end segment on Carl Sagan and his meeting with NDGT was very touching, and I was misting up.

Yeah, my reaction to that came out of nowhere.

Phoenix Rev wrote:

I just finished watching the show and it was quite good. I am looking forward to seeing future episodes.

psu_13 wrote:

Good job. Nice tribute to Sagan too, including the line "We are all made of star stuff."

It was an excellent tribute, and I think it was easy to see that NDT was getting a bit choked up remembering his friends.

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but some of the music during the tribute was from the movie "Contact."

Very, very fitting.

Alan Silvestri was the composer for both Contact and this Cosmos

Will there be 'legitimate' streaming options? For the last few years I've had this masochistic rule about broadcast content...

Rezzy wrote:

Will there be 'legitimate' streaming options? For the last few years I've had this masochistic rule about broadcast content...

It's up on Hulu Plus - dunno about regular Hulu

Tanglebones wrote:

regular Hulu

Regular Hulu confirmed. Thanks! Brought to me by Wells Fargo.

Edit: Yup. Instant Bluray purchase once available. It's so rare to find content worth suffering through commercial interruption. Thanks for the reminder that Hulu is a thing!

IMAGE(http://media.giphy.com/media/JZOsTRDdxKJBm/giphy.gif)

It's on Hulu? Sweet. I can add to the viewership numbers.

That was outstanding. A little choppy, maybe, but outstanding. Have high hopes for the remaining 12 episodes.

The Giordano Bruno segment was a bit rough for my 3rd grader (home for a sick day, so I figured I'd get some education in), but the rest was pretty well done. Yay!

(ninja edit: Except for the asteroid belt. It's sparse enough so there's no dodging, dammit!)

Was a great start, but yes, the commercials (on FOX version) seemed to take up more airtime than the actual show. Next week, switching to Hulu Plus version.

I also thought some of the combination of FX, music and NTDG overacting a bit too bombastic for my tastes. I know that's more a sign of the entertainment/tech times, but I hope they get into actual scientific learning in future episodes, rather than relying too much on the visuals.

merzy wrote:

(ninja edit: Except for the asteroid belt. It's sparse enough so there's no dodging, dammit!)

Heh! I suspect that was Brannon Braga (executive producer) taking a little artistic license for dramatic effect.

Phoenix Rev wrote:

I don't know if anyone else noticed, but some of the music during the tribute was from the movie "Contact."

Very, very fitting.

Alan Silvestri composed the music for both.

Edit: Bah. Tangleboneshausered.

Great fun. I am happy I made my kids watch too even though they probably didn't get a lot of it.

10 minutes in and I was tearing up at Voyager 1. Seriously, Voyager. Dammit, there I go again.

Oh man me too. I was really able to translate myself into that moment in time looking out at humanities greatest achievement.

The other thing that got me was when they zoomed out as far as they could go in the cosmic scale and totally blew my mind that I didn't put the next 2 facts together. That we don't know about stuff outside a certain region universe because it is so far away that its light hasn't reached us yet in the 13 billion years of the universe. If I was standing, I probably would have felt dizzy.

Plus, I had heard of Bruno but didn't know specifics. The fact that someone was so far ahead of his time without a formal scientific process is oddly encouraging.

fangblackbone wrote:

Plus, I had heard of Bruno but didn't know specifics. The fact that someone was so far ahead of his time without a formal scientific process is oddly encouraging.

The original premiere episode in 1980 discussed the 3rd century man Eratosthenes, librarian in Alexandria, who correctly calculated the circumference of the Earth, and that it was round obviously too, based on sunlight and shadows from two different locations. Pretty awesome.

Pages