The Universe: The Complete Season 1 [Blu-ray]

I am reviewing the Blu-ray version of The Universe Season One.

Let me first frame my review. I am a big astronomy buff. I have been interested and studied astronomy all my life. Although I dabled in aerospace engineering in college due to my love of space, I ultimately changed my major and have never really worked in the field. In fact I don't own a telescope. Most of my interest has been satisfied by books and wonderful TV shows like Cosmos and The Planets.

So, to me this series would have been perfect fit. A modern Cosmos with all the latest technology, computer graphics, and newest imagery. However, this series is dissapointing. I wanted this to be the outer space equivalent of the stunning Planet Earth series (or even walking with Dinosaurs), which it is not. It's not that it's horrible or even bad, just it left so much on the table.

So, I will outline what I find as flaws and then finish the review with the positives.

1) It's a little to cutesy. The narative style is a little too casual and relies on a lot of comparisons that are a little trite. For instance, they describe how Jupiter flings comets and asteriods out of their normal orbit (which protects the inner planets) by comparing it to a frisbee thower. So we have a lady on a field throwing a frisbee over and over. There are descriptions like, "I want to go ice fishing on Europa" from professional scientists, and using pool tables to make analogies of particles in the Sun colliding, but doing it over and over, or how the threats to the Earth are like an amusement park (except that they aren't at all!!!). Most of us get the point with the mere mention and don't need the extended display of terrestrial footage. It comes off as dumb and slightly insulting. Especially since most of the analogies are weak at best and very misleading at worse since they don't quite work. The narative comes off as trying to be hip and plays to a younger or naive crowd.

2) Animation quality is inconsistent. The computer animations can be quite good, but many are also quite bad. It's inconsistent. In fact some are high def and some are standard def or even blurry! That's unexceptable for computer animations. Even if rendered at lower rez they should be clear. My only guess is they couldn't get the originals. For instance on the rocket launch of the Mar rover missions the picture quality is very bad. However, I have Roving Mars on blu-ray and know it's quality is top notch. Why didn't they get the source? Some animations are really hokey too, like 10 years ago. Still some animations are quite good.

3) Constantly repeating a few graphics multiple times throughout the show. This one is really annoying and kills any desire to revist the show for another viewing. They constantly replay the same few computer animations throughout the episode too many times. This combined with the repeating of the people/earth shots, screams to me: We only had so much budget and we are stretching it as far as we can.

4) Lack of real images. It's amazing that we have soooo many good high rez images of many of the space topics they cover and they choose not to use them. Hubble has put out some great images as well as many other satellites. There are 1000's of photo's of Jupiter and the moons, Saturn, etc... and yet we get very few. When we do get some they are usually blurry low resolution and only shown for a few seconds (see mars episode). This would have been a great way to fill space and show the awe of the universe without repeating the same canned footage and computer animations over and over.

5) Lack of historical context or mission data. The show seems to find a couple things it focuses on in an episode and then avoids a lot of other stuff. for instance, when discussing Jupiter they show only one probe that visited, Voyager, but not a single mention of any other mission. There's no context into what we found out and when. No grander understanding to the journey of exploration and what it has uncovered over time. DOn't get me wrong, I don't want to see another show about how engineers built a satellite at NASA. But knowing that many other probes visited and what they found and how their data got better and answered questions from previous ones....

6) Misleading computer graphics. This one is probably my biggest beef with the show. In and attempt to dramaticize the show, much of the images are flat out misleading or wrong. For instance one animation has the moon (as in Earth's moon) revolving around Jupiter. Another has Europa in front of a star field that is zooming (like a ship going into hyperspace). Or when they show a Gamma burst from a star hitting Earth it looks like a huge glowing space ray. Or showing the asteroid field as heavily populated sea of rocks like a sci fi movie (I had to tell my wife, the asteriods are so far away from eachother that you wouldn't see another one if standing on one). These are plain turn offs if you ask me. It doesn't give the right imagery to those that don't know any better.

7) Formula of 4 or 5 concepts. It seems that each episode has at most 4 or five concepts it touches upon and no more. You can start to see and predict how the episodes will go and realize they aren't going to go in depth on a particular episode since they spend a lot of time on only the four or five areas. For instance, Jupiter they talk about How it Formed, the weather patterns, Europa, and Magnetosphere. There is so much more they could have gone over when discussing Jupiter and the moons.

I could go on. I had high hopes for the series but feel it's a pop culture cable television show with little BBC or PBS feel to it.

So is it good at all? Well, yes, it's still decent. This does fill a void in space documentaries. There are a few new nuggets of information that I am gleaning and some of the animations are still cool. If I were an average person without any knowledge of space, I might find it really neat. It might inspire some children to take up astronomy. Some episodes were more interesting than others (like the one on our Sun).

All in all, I give it a recomendation if you are curious. THere aren't that many astronomy documentaries and even Cosmos and The Planets are pretty dated. If you can get past the narrative and other flaws then you will probably find it was worth it.

I think if you have high def cable/satellite though, I would just watch it on TV as it airs. You probably won't find the need to buy it.

UPDATE: I hadn't viewed the bonus feature "The Big Bang" prior to my reivew. I have to say it was MUCH better quality than the regular episodes. It actually showed the history of astronomy including early scientists and theories of the universe but from a unique perspective. It showed only those people/theories connected to the eventual big bang theory. That was nicely done. It put a good wrapper around the whole big bang theory. Also the special was high def throughout the entire program (only rarely did this special drop in lower def material). So the consistency of the high def production was apparent. Even old phots were given the high def treatment and look excellent on screen even if they were only black and white. The show was a little light on CG. I could have enjoyed some more attention to dark matter and it's role in the universe's evolution. They also only showed one theory for the end of the universe, the Big RIP. They didn't cover the convergence or other theories. I guess the show is about the big bang and not the end. All in all, this bonus feature adds quality to the package. I would have given an extra half star to make my review 3 1/2 stars because of it.

I bought this on DVD last year, and was soo upset because the video was 4:3 letterboxed, I'm so glad the person in charge of the blu-ray didn't make the same stupid mistake (however, they did make a different one, 1080i!!!!! come on! why can't someone release this wonderful CGI filled series the way it should be seen!)

If your interested in learning more about the universe, this is a pretty good choice, especially considering the price. As far as content goes, Cosmos, this is not. But thats ok. This is a ongoing series, it cannot pack tons of information in such a short amount of time. This is an ongoing show, and as the seasons progress, more and more content will be covered. I like the format, and find it refreshing, the only hard part is not watching the whole disc each time I put one in.

What's cool though is, watching this blu-ray makes me more interested in studying some of the drier material out there, and usually encourages an amazon book purchase from me.

I'm glad the series is finally on blu-ray, and I'm even more glad that it is in real widescreen format, instead of 4:3 letter boxed like the last dvd. I eagerly await season 2 on blu-ray, and wish History Channel the best of luck with making this series.

I truly hope that the next box set has some extras. I know, its a documentary, which is basically a whole bunch of extras, but still, maybe some CGI making of, interviews with experts, something, I'm just saying. I still like it, and I really appreciate the low price. Thanks for giving this wonderful series the chance to shine on blu-ray.

If ever there was a need to buy a Blu-Ray DVD player, this is it. This series is one of the most visually stunning presentations I've ever seen. Personally, I enjoyed the commentary in each episode, but I don't think it would have so much impact watching in standard definition.

It's nice to know the latest count for the moons around Saturn and Jupiter and other later breaking space news, but as is common conclusion here, nothing really heavy otherwise. The 'flash-bang-whiz' aproach is good for junior high school classes and illustrations to explain things are fitting but distractingly numerous. My biggest disapointments; all of the many probes Nasa and others has sent out, why are these shows about 98% computer animated? Yes, the graphics are pretty but why not more real genuine photos? Why is it when planets or meteors crash they explode like they are made of TNT? Or when you pass a planet there is a sound of engine thrusters? Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the programs and will get the up-coming blu-ray sets, I'm just not used to science being presented in an "MTV" fashion. The BBC aproach is best and most dignified.

Ok, so I bought this because I'm a space documentary freak, but let me tell you, it's not really much more better than the regular dvd, in terms of video quality.

Also, no subtitles, whatsoever.

All of you who are thinking about buying this must know that it uses a variety of poor and old picture quality sources. From interlacing content to sources with dot crawl. But all of that does not compare to the experience you will have just watching 1 episode. A absolute must own!!! Our Universe is more then just possible ETs out there. Prepared to be scared, wowed and feel small.

One of those series that has to be seen in HD to be truly appreciated. Not only are the images stunning but the scientific commentary isn't so "rarified" that a non-scientist can't understand it.

If you have even a slight fascination with the night sky this is an outstanding set of BD disks.

Not having the program interrupted by commercials is a real benefit.

The Blu Ray edition is truly fascinating for all its clarity. The commentators keep to the basic folk language, which makes them understandable! Season One is utterly fascinating to regular non-scientists. A "must see", a keeper if there ever was one!

The universe series is both fascinating and educational. On TV I would sometimes catch the odd episode and it was with relish that I finally received my own copy and popped it into the blu-ray player. I became so engrossed that I watched the entire first disc in one sitting. The series really gives you an idea of the breadth and scope of the universe and the immensity of time. I particularly liked the episode 'Life and Death of a Star' with it's description of the physics at play in the creation of Super Nova, Pulsars and Black holes.

Some of the topics are covered in a basic manner but in all fairness to the producers, the show is aimed at a mainstream audience rather than academics. But there is still a lot to be learned from the series due to the sheer number of topics covered.

In short, a truly worthwhile purchase.

For those of you who haven't seen the Universe on the History Channel, let me explain. It's a very in-depth, but not over your head description of theoretical and astronomical physics. The cast of regular scientists aren't just informative, but actually entertaining. You can tell this stuff genuinely excites them. The graphics sometimes are pretty wild too.

Unfortunately, this being the first season, they stick to pretty standard space topics such as "The Moon" and "Jupiter". Later seasons include more lofty topics like Dark Matter and Faster Than Light Travel.

If you can find this on sale (I found it under half price), then this is a must both for entertainment and something to showcase your Blu-Ray's capabilities. Just having this on your shelf will make you look smarter.