I notice there are a few reviewers who think this series is silly and overly dramatic, and I have to agree with them. I'm not a scientist, but I do love science, and there are never enough GOOD science programs on TV, as far as I'm concerned. The History Channel is part of a conglomerate of entertainment media (not educational), and I have a feeling that the goal of this series (and most others on this channel) IS to excite and entertain AND introduce the importance of science in our lives to those people who think science doesn't affect them. It is like a high-action Sci-Fi movie, except that it's based on fact, but with a lot of special affects and dramatic dialog to attract those who think science is dull. Compared to some of the programming that PBS and Smithsonian channel puts out, this is less informative and designed for a less collegiate crowd, but if it can get a young person interested in going into a field of science and going in the direction of college, I say, "Bravo!"

Tastes about movies or series or music is relative, as most of us accept. But The Universe offers such lots of unique elements, explanations and examples that you feel like you have to accept the quality of this masterpiece...Even anyone with the slightest idea about what's going on in the universe can understand what these guys talking about. This is itself an enough reason to take a look at this series.A warning from someone who watched and appreciated The Universe series, you are going to get some really solid answers that you've been looking for throughout your life about our universe.If you are not some kind of a religious freak, you will see the reasonable and scientific explanations from scientists within this series and accept them. But I suggest you to stay away from The Universe if you will continue speculating your ridiculous religious dogmatics even after experiencing this masterpiece!If you watch episode 14 of the first season, Beyond the Big Bang, you'll understand what I'm trying to say. Definitely a must see!!!

History Channel's "The Universe" is a documentary series that fuels its somewhat empty content with blazingly beautiful CGI of the most spectacular sights in the universe. The series covers stars, planets, cosmic weather (!), terra-formation, dark matter and the aggressive nature of the cosmos in hour-long episodes of visual effect candy.The hook of the series is that you get to take a look at what Venus, Neptune or a nebula or a meteoroid strike on Earth would look like up- close, while the narrator explains the "science" behind it. I say "the science" because very little science is usually covered. Any complicated phenomena is usually explained through real-life analogies. A meteorite crashing the Earth is like shooting a ball with a rifle. The crater can be measured by drawing an analogy of throwing a weight plate on sand and measuring the width of the bump on the beach. And so on.Then again, this series is not aiming to educate the experts or even science enthusiasts. It's written for the laymen, who just want to see what Venus looks like if you were standing on its ground. On high definition, those images are quite impressive and grab your attention. Unfortunately, those images are continuously recycled, for probably no other than budgetary reasons. But images aren't the only reused on the show. Every time the show goes on a short commercial break, the narrator insists on recapping what happened just before the break. As if no one could remember the very easily comprehensible bits they had just been told a few minutes ago. In many ways, the series undermines the audience's intelligence and even memory by recapping and reusing its material over and over.In fact, every season of the series contains at least one episode dedicating to apocalyptic events that wreak havoc on Earth, recycling the same scenarios over and over while adding a few new ones, even going as far as reusing the same narrations!Regardless, while the Universe is admittedly a little dumb and condescendingly so, the imagery is sometimes truly astonishing. The CGI, of course, is nowhere near what many modern films, such as "2012" or even the "new" Star Wars films have accomplished, but for the small screen on high definition, it's pretty impressive.And on the bright side, it is really exciting to see what Venus or a pulsar looks like, even if you get to see the same image about a hundred times. Its greatest virtue is its entertainment value. While its greatest vice is the lack of science, the series does introduce the audience to the basic ideas of the newest and hottest theories of contemporary astrophysics and related sciences and find out more by hitting the nearest university library.

This show is absolutely great involving many famous individuals from the science community and unbelievably fun cgi's. It's nice and simple for people just interested in understanding the basics cause in reality most people just don't know or understand much about our world, science, the universe,. They stray from getting to complex or into detail about subjects that people would normally find very confusing. It's by far one of the best shows for introducing people to the fun of the universe and science. They cover all the planets, our solar system, black holes, Galaxy's, the earth, moon, and much much more. I'm not only ecstatic that they have a 3rd season but impressed cause i thought they'd run out of material by now, but then again... were talking about the universe here:p