Cosmos

Last week I went to  a DVD store and I saw on the shelf a 4 DVD pack of a mid 80's miniseries written by Carl Sagan called Cosmos. I remember seeing an episode or two when I was in junior high and it caught my eye right away. Just yesterday, 10 years later, I watched the first episode and luckily it answered the very first question that I had regarding the miniseries… what in the world is Cosmos? And believe me when I tell you, I loved the answer. Cosmos is all there is, all that ever was or ever will be. Gosh! If I knew that when answering a quiz… every time I would've responded… Cosmos!

This miniseries explores and narrates, with clear analogies and comparisons, different fundamental questions about the human life… how did we evolve? How the world was created?… anyway, sort of geeky-general questions that actually I'm eager to know the answers to. Obviously I'm not going to review it, since I've seen only a couple of episodes, for a change I'll try to tell you my first impressions on this "personal voyage" as the intro states.

First of all, this is not led to a brainy/scientific audience, here you won't find any mathematical explanations, complicated terms or a boring, heartless host. Carl Sagan has managed to communicate, with incredible easy examples, some of the most fascinating and creative answers for the rest of us. This collection of episodes are not glued with high-level explanations, but with, for a lack of a better word, love (?). Corny as it sounds, it is true. And that was the first thing I noticed, while waiting for a complicated moment I was welcomed with analogies that I, a mere mortal, could understood as crystal as water (in a non-smoke free environment, of course). You can tell Sagan was fascinated with every word he said, and most of all, you believe his words.

Just thought of another great approach I realized… when people hear "Cosmos" (and if they see the DVD cover) they'll definitely categorize this miniseries as an universe/galaxy/world movie. Well… can't blame that, since we just heard that ALL there is is Cosmos… but that conception can't differ more from the truth. Here you will hear things as big as the "Big Bang Theory" (no, you won't find Penny here… sadly) or as small as a bird. Mundane things like a city or a war are addressed, so you're in for a treat in every new episode you watch. Nicely attached in some episodes are small entries recorded 10 years after the main piece where Sagan updates some info regarding that particular episode.

I know it's been a while since Cosmos was released, so you won't find HD, widescreen or other fancy features, and some effects may seemed outdated (not a fault by any means), but in return you'll find a great piece of human heritage courtesy of a true character as Carl Sagan at his finest. Since the price tag is extremely low (150 MXN for over 750 min of film in 4 DVDs) and for the quality of the information I definitely recommend you give this a buy and believe me, you hardly will find a better deal than this one. As usual, I leave you with a small video review (well, is like 27min long, but watch just a couple of minutes) so you can have a great preview of this sublime voyage.