Customer Reviews

Just The Facts: The Human Body - Major Systems & Organs

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It's difficult to know the intended audience for the three DVDs in this series. Perhaps a complete idiot would find something in them, but then again a complete idiot probably wouldn't be able to insert the DVD into the player...

This series is a complete waste of time and money. Only the "intellectually incurious" (as G.W.B was once charitably described)could be satisfied with the flaccid content of these disks. On the DVD about organ systems we do at least get an early warning of the wasteland ahead, when a young doctor earnestly looks directly into camera and says "the reproductive system is the system involved in reproduction."

With content like this, who needs artificially-induced comas?

The series seems to have been put together by people who believed that having a few people in white coats uttering superficialities over diagrams of the human body constitutes educational material. Worse, the major analogy ("just like a car, the human body's parts are designed to work together...") is not just stupid but actively wrong. Presumably the reference to "design" is aimed at the appallingly huge number of US citizens who believe that the universe was "intelligently designed." The really interesting things about the human body (and indeed any organic system) arise from the fact that they have evolved piece-meal, not that they are slotted together from an engineer's drawing. Without an examination of the way in which an organ system arises, any meaningful description of it is impossible. Yet this is what we get here, at a level of abstraction that is absurd to the point of unintentional comedy.

This atrocious series doesn't dig deep enough into detail for any viewer to have any idea of how things work or why. We remain at such a high altitude that it's equivalent to seeing China from orbit. Oohh! Look! China. OK, done China, now let's move on...

If you are looking for an educational and informative account of how the human body is constituted and how its parts function (both individually and as part of the whole) then don't waste your time and money buying any of the three DVDs in this series. If, however, you've already ordered them and it's too late to cancel your order, you can at least utilize them as coasters for your drinks. It is their only valid use.

the other viewer was pretty on, some of the so called doctors said some really strange meaningless things. the whole experience was very child like and amateurish i looked for the release date it was 2007 it seems more like late 80's the dvd major organs has been the worst, i would suggest if you really want some good info you will look else where to spend your money. i work as a personal trainer, yoga and chef so i have been studying the mind, body and spirit for about 15 years, one thing i thought was sad, here these doctors and health professionals are promoting the human body and its functions and the girl in the video seems to be eating an oreo cookie talk about going against your bodies natural functions, just thought that to be very strange. over all the dvd quality was very poor, save yourself the trouble look else where.

This is probably the most boring DVD I have ever seen. However, I imagine if you have difficulty sleeping, this DVD might be your cure. The DVD itself didn't work on 3 of my household DVD players so I decided to try it on my sons portable DVD player and it finally worked.

One word that describes this series is ... amateur. But in a good way. It's amateur only in comparison to many new science shows of the 2000's, which are more like blockbuster presentations. A Science program should not necessarily be an entertainment, but must be educational and informative, which this is! In fact, these videos provide a great introduction to biology topics. When coupled with a class, these provide excellent addendum to textbooks by adding pictures, motion, diagrams, graphics, and hence flavor to your studies. Also by amateur, I mean that these panel of speakers are more personable, improvised, and speak from their profession rather than a script. In fact, it reminds me of being in class, with guest speakers showing models of hearts, diagrams etc.

If you like biology that's flashy and entertaining, I recommend Inside the Living Body, and The Incredible Human Machine. But if you like a more personable touch and being in class, this one's for you. Either way, they all do its job, to educate.

As far as the series, I rented all 3 from the local library. I liked Major Systems and Organs the best, hence I purchased only this one from Amazon Market Place. I felt it covered more parts of our body system than the other two. The MusculoSkeletal and Nervous System programs seemed too dry and boring, but they did cover the material in substantial detail to adequately supplement a class.

Like the other reviewers stated, hard to define the intended audience. Definitely very childish. Don't waste your money here. If you are looking for general system introductions (30 min) in an easily digestible format veiwable for high school or college level students I would reccomend the Body Atlas series, published by TLC. If you want indepth lectures (45 minute segments) on each system I would recommend Understanding the Human Body with Anthony Goodman published by The Teaching Company. It is an expensive but excellent resource.