A series of examinations of unrelated topics through short episodes. Topics are diverse and include such things as the space race, fast food and genetics.
History in bite-sized chunks. It's a very enticing idea, as, unless you're keenly interested in a topic, you're not going to watch a 60+ minute documentary on it. But a series of short (22 minutes or so) episodes on a wide range of topics is much more alluring.
And it works. The topics are interesting, there's enough information to allow you to feel informed and its well put together and presented.
Not perfect though. I got a bit tired of the infographics comparing the size of just about everything to a football field. In addition, while largely educational there are moments of subjectivity and editorialising. It was always unfortunate when these arrive as the script was generally quite neutral until then, and then, usually towards the end of each episode, it's as if the producers felt they had to voice and opinion, rather than just give the facts.
In Season 2 the editorialising reduces, thankfully, but the comparisons become more inane and more frequent. Some pretty bizarre metrics used.
Still well worth watching though.
History in bite-sized chunks. It's a very enticing idea, as, unless you're keenly interested in a topic, you're not going to watch a 60+ minute documentary on it. But a series of short (22 minutes or so) episodes on a wide range of topics is much more alluring.
And it works. The topics are interesting, there's enough information to allow you to feel informed and its well put together and presented.
Not perfect though. I got a bit tired of the infographics comparing the size of just about everything to a football field. In addition, while largely educational there are moments of subjectivity and editorialising. It was always unfortunate when these arrive as the script was generally quite neutral until then, and then, usually towards the end of each episode, it's as if the producers felt they had to voice and opinion, rather than just give the facts.
In Season 2 the editorialising reduces, thankfully, but the comparisons become more inane and more frequent. Some pretty bizarre metrics used.
Still well worth watching though.