User Reviews

Evolution is a fact. You can call it a theory, but it is a fact. Neil DeGrasse Tyson spins begins an explanation of how dogs came to be. First wolves, then natural selection among humans, and then the variety of breeds that pattern themselves after basic human needs from work to companionship. He then goes into the thing that the naysayers often say is impossible without a god pointing his finger, the eye. He shows us how the eye evolved and continues to evolve, again based on the particular environment needs of the species. Finally, the tree of life becomes fruitful, but also has a lot of dead branches and he leads through the realities of extinction. The earth itself is not a life form, but it's heating, cooling, gas producing, meteor accepting being is what directs the lives of its inhabitants. Tyson allows that the fact that we are all under the same umbrella of living creatures, gives us a much real spirituality than that of one imposed by ignorance (my word). I would imagine there will be an expansion on this in future episodes.

*For those reading this review, be advised that spoilers will be within. If you have not watched the 2nd episode of "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey", please go and watch it before reading this review. You have been warned.*

In the second episode, Neil DeGrasse Tyson takes us on a journey through the harmony of life on Earth, looking at our recent skill of artificial selection (with dogs) and then broadening it to the topic of natural selection, the mechanism upon which the entire fabric of biology is based. Bit by bit, Tyson shows us increasingly how nature operates toward selecting traits that ultimately make up, essentially, everything here on Earth and also provide the basis by which living organisms survive the ever-changing environment. It is truly a testament to the power by which science has offered us a bridge toward understanding our place in the universe.

Saturn's moon Titan is also visited here, and offers a possible venue upon which extraterrestrial life could be found. The point brought here is how, though the tree of life on Earth could be full of such variety, there might be yet more strange trees of existence yet to be found. There are also other wonderful applications that such a world offers us, but I'll leave the reader to imagine them.

Despite Tyson's obvious omission of Alfred Russell Wallace, co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection, and the oversimplification of the topic of evolution (eye and tree of life to name a couple), the presentation is well done.

The writing is improved here over the previous episode. There is a more apparent theme working through the entirety of the episode that works well, though some pacing issues do still exist, which is especially shown at the ending of the episode by the abrupt cut off for example.

The evolution animation sequence at the end, which was taken straight from the original series, is a nice touch to be sure. However, the sequence would have been better if the series tried to create its own version of it from the new graphics that are now available, perhaps with Tyson recapping the information of the episode over it as a satisfying conclusion. It is that type of missed opportunity of carving out a new niche past the shadow of the 1980 series that ends up hurting the new one. Don't get me wrong, the sequence is great to see for nostalgic reasons, but the potential was there for something even grander.

The music doesn't particularly improve here, sometimes being completely absent in certain scenes. However, the information presented makes up for it mostly.

Not surprising, Tyson makes a couple of hints toward a topic that will be obviously touched upon later in the series, anthropogenic global warming. His first hint is done after discussing the origin of polar bears through genetic mutation sequencing. The next is done toward the "nameless" corridor amongst the labyrinth of the "Halls of Extinction", where Tyson discusses the Permian Extinction, the worst mass extinction to befall the Earth and one of five to have occurred (He does oversimplify the explanation of this event, as the extinction is thought to have multiple levels and could have involved other catastrophes outside of just volcanic eruptions and such, but overall not too bad). This is a problem yet to come, since Tyson states that he will get back to it. In that spirit, I will do the same; though I will mention that recent reports have suggested that ice levels within the polar areas, particularly the Arctic, have been mysteriously recovering of late and polar bear numbers have been increasing as well. Take of that what you will.

Despite all these points, Cosmos is definitely moving in the right direction. It remains to be seen what other topics will be discussed and how they will be handled, but if future episodes follow the fabric mostly laid down here, then the series could be quite the treat indeed.

Rating: 9/10

I earlier wrote a review for the pilot, and I gave it a 9 out of 10.

I may be against this episode because I am more of a Physics guy, and never had much of an interest for Biology. That being said, evolution is a fact. It has been proved correct, and nothing, written in any old "sacred" book, can prove it wrong.

The script is similar to the pilot, without the planets/systems/galaxies/universes/multiverses/bubbleverses mumbo- jumbo. It shows the "Tree of Life", a needless to say, tree which gives birth to all life.

We see how the polar bears and dogs came into existence, this ultimately leads to the discovery that all of us are related to each other(yummy yummy incest).

We then look at the broken branches of the tree, that is, the extinct species. The last of them didn't have a name, which was clever, I think that was reserved for the Homo Sapiens.

In the last 6 minutes, they show us the possibility of life on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. I would like it better if they researched on Europa(moon of Jupiter) or Enceladus(moon of Saturn), as they are more likely for life there than anywhere else(after Earth, that is). Maybe this could be the plot of Christopher Nolan's next movie, Interlunar.

This segment was rather crammed, and I would like it better if they made a whole episode out of this, instead of filler material.

The script, on paper, sounds perfect. But the episode just did not have that feeling of wonder, of excitement, that the pilot had. It could have been much, much better.

Crammed segments, overall dullness, and uninteresting topics earn this episode a 6 out of 10.