Customer Reviews

The Universe: Collector's Edition Megaset

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Universe: Collector's Edition Megaset"
(History Channel/A&E)
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I bought this massive, 14-DVD set while in search of video materials to stimulate the the curiosity of a five-year old whose school has been doing a lot of space-related reading and discussion. I wanted to find materials that could build on what she's already learned, and would be exciting but not too complicated or disturbing. Based on other reviews, I have high hopes for this collection, although I think it may not work (yet) for this young, budding scientist. I plan to review the episodes as I view them, so the review you see here so far is not a complete one. More like a review blog, I guess.

Anyway, the series that this "mega-set" collects are as follows:
"The Universe: The Complete Season One"
"The Universe: The Complete Season Two"
"The Planets"
"How the Earth Was Made"

And here are my reviews:

THE UNIVERSE, SEASON ONE: THE SUN
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Informative, but sensationalistic. Although many of the visual metaphors help illustrate complex phenomena -- billiard balls used to show how atomic particles interact, for example -- they are also confusing and misleading in many ways. The real problem, however, is in the overly dramatized, alarmist framing of the narration. One of those oily-voiced announcers, the kind that record political attack ads, tells us over and over of the "deadly" threat of the sun's "terrible power", computer graphics show the Earth buffeted by "explosions" of solar energy; at one point an actual shotgun is pointed at a beachball-sized model of the earth and is fired repeatedly, until the ball is destroyed. Yes, solar radiation can disrupt modern telecommunications, but is all the violent hype necessary to explain this? I learned a lot from this episode, but I wouldn't show it to a young child; it's simply too disturbing and confusing.

More to come. Stay tuned.

I got this set for my 8 year old grandson. He is fascinated by the science. When he visits, he will ask to see one of these discs. I find them interesting as well and I think they're great for all ages. Those who have a curious mind will enjoy the series.

I purchased this for my 6yr old son, and he loves it. He's been very into all things space related for a few years now, and this fits the bill perfectly. In our area, we have "furlough Fridays" with no school due to budget cuts. On those days off, we work on some math, then watch an episode of "The Universe" and write about what he's learned. He loves the DVD's, and has picked up lot's of interesting facts... it's even led to an interest in studying the periodic table since they talk about the chemical make-up of different atmospheres, and how the Sun lives it's life. This is a great jumping off point for people and kids just getting into learning about Astronomy and Physics.

The Universe is an excellent documentary that makes the universe easier to understand. It is basically a Geography class about the Universe. Fantastic photography and interesting scientific concepts.

When my daughter and I first found The Universe on the History Channel, we knew it was a set we would have to own. We have been enjoying this set very much and all get so engrossed in each episode that the house could burn down around us. I would recommend it to anyone and feel it is appropriate for all age groups.

Behold something greater than yourself. This fascinating series is beautiful to behold and make you aware of how much you do not know and may never know. It also puts our life span in perspective. We are talking about a universe that is billions of years old and may still be expanding when humans are extinct.
This is a series that is definitely worth owning because one viewing is probably not enough.

I watched all the episodes so far, some more than once. I love how they explain it so that even if you've had no prior education in Astronomy, you will still be able to comprehend this. It's educational and entertaining. The visual are brilliant. All around A+

On a personal side note. I just took a college level CLEP test(a test that you can take in place of a class, if you pass you get full credit for the class). With no prior education other than this TV series. And I got high marks, 3 college credit hours towards my degree from sitting on my couch and watching this show. I recommend this for all ages.

This is a very entertaining show about the origins of our universe, however, it is filled with inacuracies. The episode I am watching now is about Saturn, and they are saying that your weight on Saturn would be roughly 2/3's of what it is on Earth, that is, if you could stand on the surface, which they maintain you can't. This is untrue. The rocky core of Saturn is several timess bigger than Earth which means that not only could you stand on it's surface (assuming you could withstand the atmosphere) but it's density is such that you would actually weigh more on Saturn - it's gravitational pull is actually far greater than Earth's. Even more purplexing, they actually admit later on that Saturn does indeed have a rocky core that is larger than the Earth. So not only are they giving misinformation, but they contradict themselves in the same paragraph. They also continuously refer to the outer edge of Saturns atmosphere as it's surface. I have never heard of anyone refering to Earth's stratosphere as it's surface.

I have seen the show several times, and every show that I have seen has had some obvious missinformation. I do enjoy it for the marvalous visuals, including actual photographs as well as computer animation, but have been somewhat unimpressed with some of the astonomers and much of the naration. To be fair, they get more right than wrong, but if they are mistaken on some of the very basic things, how much of what I don't know are they also getting wrong? Which is why if I actually wanted to learn about the Universe, I would recomend a good book. You may start with Hawkings Universe, or A Brief History of Time. Or just about any modern astronomy text.

In summary, this is an entertaining show, but perhaps not the best source of factual information, so watch it and enjoy it, but if you really want to learn about the universe pick up a good companion book.

This is truly the most amazing series ever put together to explain our universe and Earth. This series answers questions that most of us though could never be answered. Exhilarating and fantastic photos and graphics make this series a must have collection. This is the kind os series one can watch over and over again learning more every time they see it. I highly recommend their other series How the Earth was made as well (series 1).

The Universe has been a wonderful teaching tool to use in my high school Earth Science class. This video set has everything we are covering in the book in an easy to understand and thought provoking method the students really get excited about watching. I teach both academic and general level classes and the questions the kids come up with are high level questions I could never get them to ask from reading their text book. The History Channel is my hero as they always come up with documentaries that are great for exploring a world where students in the middle of Illinois may never experience or think about.