PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Debajyoti Bose Professor Brian Cox takes up the charge of exploring our planet and explain the motions of the Universe and everything that it is made of, thus explaining gracefully with simulated and beautiful depictions of our place in this planet and the Universe at large. One has to keep in mind, this is not a nerd show which will highlight all pro-level science talk. Men like Brian Cox, Neil Tyson are science communicator and popularizer. The main purpose of this show is to bring young minds who fear science in this wonderful fascination and its justifications,and to make them understand how profound are the immutable laws of physics and other sciences, when it comes to the grandest of stages i.e. life of the stars. The show did that quiet splendidly. So if solar system and galaxies have been your fascination, but you were always afraid of the big science formulas and terms, this is your chance to get hold of them, and understand the beauty they have and represent.

kingdavidek Within the first twenty minutes we learn that the universe is very old, that you can't go back in time, that a year is when the earth revolves around the sun once, that the universe appears eternal and never changing(even though, spoilers, it isn't) and that time is irreversible and changes things. Brian Cox manages to repeat this last fact about ten times, seemingly challenging our notion of time and trying to make us believe we have been caught in some broken record of an alternate universe. For any person, whether you are physics graduate or you have simply completed one year of primary school, this is not news.The BBC seem satisfied with squandering an obviously large budget on admittedly impressive but ultimately useless shots of far away landscapes. This series simply looks for the money shots, whilst giving the writing job to a nine year old boy with adhd. Time is irreversible, now heres a turtle, time is irreversible, now heres a glacier, time is irreversible, now heres a cool simulation of an explosion! Though clearly trying to emulate the same wonder and respect for the universe that Carl Sagan had, Brian Cox's exhilaration seems completely artificial. This shows that today, documentaries are willing to sacrifice learning and wonder for special effects and plane tickets to anywhere that takes their fancy, no matter how relevant to the message it is.

rgcustomer I'm not sure what some people were looking for here. It's not meant to be a university lecture. But it is meant to be a way to communicate to the average person (who may reside in Jesusland instead of an ivory tower) our current knowledge about the universe.Yes, Brian Cox is beautiful. Who do you want to learn from? He's enthusiastic, friendly, nice to look at, and knowledgeable. That's exactly who should be presenting science. Look at who you are competing against, for viewers.While I was expecting something like a visit to various celestial objects, similar to a tour of our solar system (and we do get a bit of stuff like that), this takes a much wider view.We see the sheer size of the universe, in both space and time. We see how a universe like ours is necessary to support life, but that life can only exist for a relative instant. And then we explore two other big concepts on the scale of the universe: gravity and light (although frankly, the first two episodes are sufficient by themselves).This is, without a doubt, the clearest documentary description of humanity's place in the universe that I have seen. And it is presented in a way that properly dramatizes it, and simultaneously shows off the beauty of Earth as well.The two minor drawbacks I see are: the episode order is in roughly decreasing emotional impact and should be adjusted/edited, and there are too many repetitive shots of Brian in the same place (for example, standing on the peak of a mountain).

screenman This is a classic example of modern TV and documentaries in general. It is dumbed-down supreme. For the first episode, enough information that could be communicated by Patrick Moore in 15 minutes was strung-out and sometimes repeated for what seemed like 2 hours. Whilst - endorsing the current obsession with yoof - new-found favourite of the moment, Professor Brian Cox, brought his boyish enthusiasms and his bucket-and-spade to bear upon the cosmos and all things within. I don't mean to appear unkind or - heaven forbid - counter-ageist, but Coxy doesn't look old enough to be an undergraduate let alone a fully-fledged Emeritus. To hear this cherub-cheeked academic reiterate the mechanisms of the universe was as jarring as political comment from a pram. The only time he seemed to fit the picture was when he was making sand-castles. Prodigy he may be, but plausible he ain't. This job needs a Time-Lord, or at least somebody who'd pass for one.Sadly, the only really informative content of the program was provided by his narration. And this often fronted a backdrop of largely computer-generated 'wonder'-ful imagery that bore little or no cogent association with what our boy-genius was actually saying.Worse still, those production chuckle-heads at the dear old BBC had incorporated a music track that practically drowned out his piping little voice with crashing cords of heavenly bombast. In order to avoid an evening of tinnitus it became necessary to turn the volume down to a level that rendered his narration almost inaudible. I gather The Firm received so many complaints about this particular issue that they actually intend to pump down the jam for future episodes. That in itself is a 'universal wonder', because if there's one thing the Wizards of Wood Lane are usually deaf to, it's the tastes of their viewers.The BBC can make absolutely top-drawer documentaries. They recently produced to little popular acclaim, a short series called 'Indian Hill Railways' which was an absolute corker. There wasn't a single wasted second. I've bought the DVD. 'Wonders Of The Universe' was as near to being the opposite as could be. It was ill-conceived, cheap, and as vacuous as deep space itself. It was a video coffee-table-book, with lots of startling, artistic imagery abutted by short captions of general information. It's the universe for kids. Meantime, grown-ups should stick with 'The Sky At Night'. It'll easily outlive this pap.