The Universe

2007

Seasons & Episodes

  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
8.6| TV-PG| en| More Info
Released: 29 May 2007 Ended
Producted By: Flight 33 Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe
Info

From the planets to the stars and out to the edge of the unknown, history and science collide in a wondrous yet deadly adventure through space and time.

Genre

Documentary

Watch Online

The Universe (2007) is now streaming with subscription on Prime Video

Director

Production Companies

Flight 33 Productions

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime.
Watch Now
The Universe Videos and Images

The Universe Audience Reviews

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!
Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
pjcanfield For what is a promising title with a multitude of episodes spanning so many seasons I found myself cringing at how incredibly "dumbed down" the content was.Analogy has a place for getting across "out of this world" concepts but this is ridiculous! This series says more about the USA and American culture than it informs about the title matter. I mean really, how many melodramatic and inept analogies using guns, speeding bullets or that standard international unit of the "football field" need to be employed.The failure ultimately lies with the editors/producers whose expertise evidently only extends as far as "what sells" as there is no sense that they have any real appreciation for the subject matter.It is possible to make a documentary such that the "ordinary man" can understand it and yet not avoid using words with more than 3 syllables and resorting to cheap and inappropriate attention grabbers. Set the bar higher people...
fedor8 (The 10/10 rating applies to the first two seasons.) "People come together, coz we're all made of stars..." Don't be a ninny like Moby, quoting a fraction of a scientific detail you overheard from a documentary program while channel-hopping during a cocaine-induced stupor (vegan cocaine, I gather...). Watch the whole thing. Because if the hairless, tone-deaf, talentless, nepotistic little turntable bunny had listened more carefully, he would have known that we're all made of supernovas. Besides, whereas it is true that most of us are made of stars, certain NY jet-set nerds are made of sewer material which I hear is made out of dung, not stars...Astronomy and cosmology in particular have reached their Golden Age, and have been experiencing a sort of accelerated evolution, in the past decade or so, with dozens of major new discoveries. What better way to present them to science fans and utterly clueless science-illiterate masses (people like Moby and his fans) than with this slickly executed TV series. The CGI sequences are top-notch, the best scientific minds of the day have their say, the shows move at a brisk pace, and the material is sufficiently simplified so that about a fifth of all potential viewers can follow it. (A fifth: that is a LOT.) Unfortunately, the vast majority of people don't even know whether cosmology is a science or a new religious cult for Hollywood's "intelligentsia", let alone what fascinating questions, theories, and facts had been brought forward recently in this field. When one considers that various "holy books" are still top-sellers while less than 0.1% of the population has an inkling what a Big Rip is, then it's small wonder that Western Civilization has been going the way of profound dumbing-down in recent decades. Idiocracy, here we come! Madonna's latest Third-World kidnapping (sorry, adoption) is so much more interesting to the sheep than concepts such as a cosmological decade or a quasar.I would particularly recommend TU to bog-worshipers, esoterics, the astrology-obsessed, and other witch-finders, ghost-seekers, and sasqwatch-spotters. TU might widen their horizons, make them finally aware that a real world exists out there, completely oblivious about and almost entirely unrelated to the numerous fantasy worlds humans had been concocting for eons out of pure abject fear. (Cosmic insecurity is a bitch.) Nevertheless, I am also aware that only five minutes of almost any TU episode would put off these viewer demographics from watching the rest, forever. There is no cure against Dummheit.The first two seasons are a must, and should be checked out first. The very best: "Dark Matter/Dark Energy", "Life & Death Of A Star", "Cosmic Apocalypse", "The Outer Planets". Other superior episodes: "Cosmic Holes", "Alien Moons", "Saturn", "Jupiter", "Alien Planets", "Secrets of the Sun", "The Biggest Things In Space".The lesser episodes are the ones dealing with space travel/colonization. Still quite interesting, but with too many of those laughable Mickey Mouse fantasy scenarios about terra-forming of alien planets and sending faster-than-light ships to other solar systems. Humanity will never move a millimeter beyond Mars, and when I say "humanity" I mean just the dozen or so luckless urine-sniffers (astronauts) who'll probably end up leaving their bones on the "red plant". I'll sooner believe that Tim Robbins comes up with a cure for the swine flu than that a successful colony will ever be established on Mars.So what happens when a Moby particle hits an anti-Moby particle? Something wonderful.
vildemorken My views are already well presented in the first review of this title. But what I will say to those of you who argue that it really is a great show for those who are not familiar with astronomy and physics, it's not. And I want to warn off 12 year old kids as well, more than others, they might be watching it thinking this comet with 99.9% chance of NOT crashing into earth is something worth worrying about. As others also have written, this series rely more on sensationalism than actual science, and I find it hard to believe these educated astronomers would actually have anything to do with this War of the Worlds fiction. As they spit out random theory after theory, I find myself with my palm to my forehead more often than I'm actually intrigued.If the argument for watching this is that it's supposedly easy and understandable to "beginners of astronomy", then I strongly recommend watching Wonders of the Solar System in stead. It's a BBC production with professor Brian Cox as the presenter. Note that although he actually is a professor in particle physics, he still explains everything in simple terms without sounding like the voice-over for action trailers. Also, the imagery and animations in this series are beautiful, not like The Universe's cheap Hollywood production.
StargateQAZ Okay, first of all, after reading all these reviews I could't help myself but to write something as well.So...some people say it's good for kids and unintelligent and uneducated people. I must say...throw that comments in to garbage! Why? Because even if I'm not to physics I can certainly see that this is not too much filled with scientific terms and ways of explanation. That is a fact and that is on spot, but...let me say one more thing. This series are made for wide range of people, not for astronomers and physicists to learn something new or to improve their research. It's meant to show us random people some interesting facts, about astronomy and universe overall and potentially get some of us in to the world of science. I, for example am a 3D & visual effects specialist and I could easily say, that the visual effects here are mediocre and not something special at all, because that is my profession and I see it. But okay, that goes for me and other VE experts, but random people who are not in to computer graphics will say..."wooow what a stunning graphics and visuals, mind blowing animation and effects, i'm totally blown away." while I'll sit there mumbling "damn, they could've done this a lot better". That's okay, that does not mean they're blind for esthetics and dumb not to make a difference between good and mediocre when they see it. It's just that CG is not their field of interests and they're not learning and researching that field such as us CG (computer graphics) artists do, so they can't tell about processes of creating CG, how it's done, how it could've been done, what could be made better, etc. Same goes for other people who are saying that this is dumb. Dear people, not all of us here are scientists. If you are a physicists and find it dumb...not all of us will think the same. If you want to discover something new, go do a research, make a discovery for yourself instead of making one-sided comments. Assuming you've never done CG before. Would you understand me if I start explaining it to you now and immediately start with: mental ray renderer, rendering algorithms, global illumination, final-gathering setup, FG points cashing, reactor scripting, mesh exporting, material map ID setting, channel setting, texture scaling, keying, camera tracking, 3D tracking, setting up key velocity, curve editing, animation controllers, etc, etc, etc, etc.....and you've never even heard for any of the CG making softwares. I doubt it, no matter how intelligent you might be.So for the conclusion and for recommendations...Do watch this show if you're into something new, if you want to find out interesting and fun stuff about cosmos and astronomy and ignore those who are saying that this is for lowbrainers. You're not dumb if you like to watch this. I'm 26 years old, a member of MENSA with an IQ of 148, and I find this show fun and interesting a lot ;-) So cheers and enjoy :-)