A MovieBob Review of Cosmos

[MovieBob]

A MovieBob Review of Cosmos

What do Neil deGrasse Tyson and a talking dog have in common? MovieBob gets to the bottom of this science mystery as he explores the new Fox show, Cosmos.

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[Burnouts3s3]

Huh. Never expected you to review Cosmos, Bob.

When you say Fox is a seperate entity from Fox News, I go back to that Simpsons episode where Kent Brockman was fired but explains Fox is allowed to be lewd because Fox News panders to the corporations or something so that Fox can get more lax censorship standards.

Is that true or is it something else entirely.

 

[Tanis]

I've really enjoyed the past two episodes myself.

I wonder of Oklahoma edited the second episode, like they did the first, to remove evolution.
XD

 

[Remus]

I've really enjoyed the past two episodes myself.

I wonder of Oklahoma edited the second episode, like they did the first, to remove evolution.
XD

But then the episode would only be 2 minutes long, just some weird bit about Saturn's moon, where it rains methane. This btw would be something I would not have mentioned out loud, because while all that fuel would be a great financial incentive to fund space travel, it would ruin whatever environment it was used on.

 

[JaceArveduin]

I've really enjoyed the past two episodes myself.

I wonder of Oklahoma edited the second episode, like they did the first, to remove evolution.
XD

Did we they really? I find that odd, seeing as it just so happens that evolution gets taught in schools here there...

 

[MatsVS]

I don't know if Bob is right about MacFarlane or not, but I prefer to believe that at least one of the cogs in the great machinery that is Hollywood has realized how absolutely fucking broken the culture is and decided to do a little bit of good.

 

[vid87]

Oddly enough I wasn't actually worried about the whole "dumbing down" thing when I heard Seth wanted to do this - I've watched enough FG and AD to get the impression that his progressive science-minded views are sincere and that he's honestly concerned about the culture at large, even if the actual shows he's making right now are phoning it in at best.

 

[antidonkey]

Dang it. I keep forgetting this is showing and now I've missed two episodes. Sigh......I wonder if Hulu has them. If not, I'll just wait it out until it makes an appearance on Netflix.

 

[UncleAsriel]

I like what I saw of episode 1 - nice review of Cosmological basics, peppered with De Grasse's cool, classy demeanour.

However, I thought the bits on Monk Bruno were overly simplistic and took up more of the narrative than necessary. The monk wasn't just challenging the church's theoretical and philosophical infrastructure. He was also challenging the church's political and organizational structures, as well as fundamental doctrines which weren't merely factual matters but important philosophical underpinnings of Catholicism.(Denying Christ's divinity, embracing Heremtic mysticism, and the like aren't scientifically rooted beliefs and were just a flavor of woo-woo which fit his personal tastes)

It was less "he was the brave innovated who uncovered had the Truth and it was suppressed by an " and more "he was a problematic radical who consistently pissed off institutions of power." I found it mischaracterized the past by simplifying the past. James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed took a much more nuanced look at the role of the Church in Medieval society, and it gives a much more sophisticated take on the past. (The TV Series and book were both excellent reconstructions of how the Church's worldview was constructed.)

TL;DR, this bit on Monk Bruno took too long and it's narrative of "virtuous Truth-seeker being brutally suppressed by Institution thought-police" was simplistic and incorrect.

(It begins! The great rant-storm of our time!)

 

[Tastum]

I was at first surprised to realize Seth McFarlane had anything to do with the new Cosmos, but then I remembered this clip:

http://youtu.be/DI9ImScQGAo

Yeah, I think I understand now.

I'm going to be watching the first episode in a little bit here - I follow Tyson a lot (if you like Podcasts you might look up his, called StarTalk) so I expect it will be awesome.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

I've only seen the first episode so far, but my, my, what an episode it was. Tyson does a wonderful job as host and narrator, I hope the series inspires others to increase the intelligence of TV. After years of reality TV and now Jersey/Geordie Shore, TOWIE and Made in Chelsea, it's about time that we got something intellectually stimulating on the brain-rot box.

Once more I have hope for the future.

 

[Kuredan]

I remember watching the original on PBS as a kid and from then on, I've loved science. I am in awe of the wonders of this universe that we seem to discover more and more of each year. I may not ascribe the same cosmological and teleological causes to the universe that most scientists do, but I've never argued the science behind it all. I'll always keep looking up and to our future.

 

[seiler88]

I like what I saw of episode 1 - nice review of Cosmological basics, peppered with De Grasse's cool, classy demeanour.

However, I thought the bits on Monk Bruno were overly simplistic and took up more of the narrative than necessary. The monk wasn't just challenging the church's theoretical and philosophical infrastructure. He was also challenging the church's political and organizational structures, as well as fundamental doctrines which weren't merely factual matters but important philosophical underpinnings of Catholicism.(Denying Christ's divinity, embracing Heremtic mysticism, and the like aren't scientifically rooted beliefs and were just a flavor of woo-woo which fit his personal tastes)

It was less "he was the brave innovated who uncovered had the Truth and it was suppressed by an " and more "he was a problematic radical who consistently pissed off institutions of power." I found it mischaracterized the past by simplifying the past. James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed took a much more nuanced look at the role of the Church in Medieval society, and it gives a much more sophisticated take on the past. (The TV Series and book were both excellent reconstructions of how the Church's worldview was constructed.)

TL;DR, this bit on Monk Bruno took too long and it's narrative of "virtuous Truth-seeker being brutally suppressed by Institution thought-police" was simplistic and incorrect.

(It begins! The great rant-storm of our time!)

Translation: Dude got roasted because he really was a heretic and not because of his science.

Protip: Science is not heresy. You have to comment directly on God to be a heretic.

 

[BarelyAudible]

I like what I saw of episode 1 - nice review of Cosmological basics, peppered with De Grasse's cool, classy demeanour.

However, I thought the bits on Monk Bruno were overly simplistic and took up more of the narrative than necessary. The monk wasn't just challenging the church's theoretical and philosophical infrastructure. He was also challenging the church's political and organizational structures, as well as fundamental doctrines which weren't merely factual matters but important philosophical underpinnings of Catholicism.(Denying Christ's divinity, embracing Heremtic mysticism, and the like aren't scientifically rooted beliefs and were just a flavor of woo-woo which fit his personal tastes)

It was less "he was the brave innovated who uncovered had the Truth and it was suppressed by an " and more "he was a problematic radical who consistently pissed off institutions of power." I found it mischaracterized the past by simplifying the past. James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed took a much more nuanced look at the role of the Church in Medieval society, and it gives a much more sophisticated take on the past. (The TV Series and book were both excellent reconstructions of how the Church's worldview was constructed.)

TL;DR, this bit on Monk Bruno took too long and it's narrative of "virtuous Truth-seeker being brutally suppressed by Institution thought-police" was simplistic and incorrect.

(It begins! The great rant-storm of our time!)

Translation: Dude got roasted because he really was a heretic and not because of his science.


Protip: Science is not heresy. You have to comment directly on God to be a heretic.

Now I feel much better about his eight years of imprisonment and execution.

 

[hentropy]

I like what I saw of episode 1 - nice review of Cosmological basics, peppered with De Grasse's cool, classy demeanour.

However, I thought the bits on Monk Bruno were overly simplistic and took up more of the narrative than necessary. The monk wasn't just challenging the church's theoretical and philosophical infrastructure. He was also challenging the church's political and organizational structures, as well as fundamental doctrines which weren't merely factual matters but important philosophical underpinnings of Catholicism.(Denying Christ's divinity, embracing Heremtic mysticism, and the like aren't scientifically rooted beliefs and were just a flavor of woo-woo which fit his personal tastes)

It was less "he was the brave innovated who uncovered had the Truth and it was suppressed by an " and more "he was a problematic radical who consistently pissed off institutions of power." I found it mischaracterized the past by simplifying the past. James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed took a much more nuanced look at the role of the Church in Medieval society, and it gives a much more sophisticated take on the past. (The TV Series and book were both excellent reconstructions of how the Church's worldview was constructed.)

TL;DR, this bit on Monk Bruno took too long and it's narrative of "virtuous Truth-seeker being brutally suppressed by Institution thought-police" was simplistic and incorrect.

(It begins! The great rant-storm of our time!)

That, in turn, is a somewhat simplistic view as well. While Bruno's disagreements with church did extend farther than just science, keep in mind that Joan of Arc was also burned at the stake for "heresy". While that may have been technically true under their interpretation, everyone knows Joan of Arc was not executed because of "heresy". In the show it mentions that if Bruno's version of the truth was real, regardless of matters relating to divinity, it would be a fairly big black eye to the church. The Copernican theories relating to the Earth revolving around the sun were threatening, but not as threatening as the idea of an infinite universe where (gasp!) Earth/humans might not be that special.

I do agree that it maybe took a bit too much time, and it was strange to put it in the first episode, even if his theory of an infinite universe did relate to the subject manner. I don't know if they'll do a more in-depth "big bang" episode later on, but I think going it more detail would have been beneficial. The recent episode on evolution was perhaps the single best explanation of evolution for laymen I have ever heard, so something like that for similar concepts would be nice.

 

[ccggenius12]

I feel this video is relevant to the subject.

Spoiler

I look forward to the inevitable equivalent video from the new series.

 

[Darth_Payn]

It still blows my mind that Seth MacFarlane is the mastermind behind COSMOS's revival, but it is a HIT! Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the perfect host for this, and I like how he gets involved with other "nerd" and "geek" stuff, like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and comic books. I still have that issue of Action Comics he guest starred in to ask Superman for help in an experiment.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Well this raises my respect for Seth McFarlane by another few notches.