How is it possible to make a series about the Universe absolute rubbish? Somehow, the History Channel has managed to find one. Sure, it looks good, it has the impressive title of The Universe, and it is a documentary series. And yet, while I do watch it for the odd bit and piece of fascinating information and the stunning graphics, it manages to irritate me and have me hovering over the remote control fast forward button.
Where does it go so wrong? Firstly the title: I have not seen the whole series yet (evidently), but I get the impression The Universe is really only the Solar System. And yet, even there, the series has taken a turn for the curious by going from the Sun straight to Mars and now Jupiter. Perhaps that's because Mercury and Venus exist on a parallel plane of existence that they haven't covered yet, but I think the reason is more to do with the second "wrongness".
And that is the focus: while the title may be all about the universe, the series is actually all about Earth. It's a cosmological catastrophe series disguised as a "real" doco. The Sun episode focussed on how the Sun could kill us all; Mars was all about how Earth could turn into it; and Jupiter likewise is viewed through the lens of "protector from meteors" and "bad storm place - like those on Earth".
All of which really dumsb down the series. And depresses me.
Is this the future of American documentary making? Are we doomed to be bombarded from the History Channel by interesting facts wrapped up in an intellectually stunted, sensationalistic wrapper? Can anything save us? Perhaps we need a documentary series to explore that impending doom - though perhaps it is already too late...
Verdict: The Universe is a big, dumb, flashy place. And while the Earth might not revolve around the Sun, the Universe still does.
3 comments:
I remember looking at what was on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel in the TV pages once and decided that if Monster Trucks, Poisonous Wildlife and exploding Volcanos was the best they could do, there was a reason I don't subscribe to Sky.
There's definitely this 'horror' genre in Documentary making - It's a bit like 'Seconds from Disaster' and 'I Survived' etc. on the main channels, none of which I've watched because I'm just not interested.
BTW has anyone else noticed the sheer amount of crap police reality shows there are on Prime? I swear they must sit in programming meetings at that channel with the head of programming going 'World's worst police chases 52 - I hope it's as rockin' as the other 51 volumes - let's stick it in primetime!' While the other members of the programming team desparately try to head it off with yet another repeat of Doctor Who...
"Is this the future of American documentary making?"
Future, present and past. Although there are many good documentaries, as a genre The Documentary is massively overrated.
Now that I think about it, from what I've seen the standard of documentaries is going up - what you've just described would be above average for a '50s doco. Check out some of Disney's "nature" documentary abominations from the period: a few hours of watching animals being tortured on a backlot soundstage and you'll want to be sick.
Ah, the wonderful anthropomorphisms of Disney! I remember those. What seemed so amusing and informative in childhood really doesn't seem to stack up these days.
As for the whole Police reality TV shows... well, we can only hope they show the "corrupt cop" shows (a cross between COPS and Target) that I think should be made right now...
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