The Universe: The Mega Collection

Love it

The Universe "Complete" series, and I quote complete since there is at least one more season after this box set, is a pretty good overall series. However, the series quickly becomes very repetitive. The first season is what you'd expect. It mostly deals with Earth's solar system. One thing I immediately noticed, however, is that many of the interviews and much of the footage is identical to what is used in the first season of "How the Universe Works." Now, "The Universe" season 1 came out long before How the Universe Works, so I cannot knock it for that, but this leads me to wonder how much of the footage has been regurgitated from elsewhere.I pretty much break the entire series down into two types of episodes. "Factual" and theoretical. Factual episodes are episodes such as the ones involving the inner planets. They are easily observable, we have a good idea how they work (though not perfect, hence why "factual" was in quotes), so we can consider episodes about them to be fact based. Other episodes, such as colonizing Mars, fall into the theoretical category. I tend to find the theoretical episodes to be more interesting and a little less repetitive than the factual episodes. Nevertheless, you will quickly find that after the first season, the same footage is used over and over again. How many times will we need to see that poor T-Rex blasted by a meteor's shockwave?Another thing you will also realize is that the show quickly runs out of new ideas. As soon as I saw "Sex in Space" as an episode title in Season 3, I instantly knew the writers had run out of ideas. Sure the idea of sex in space is interesting, but not 45 minutes worth interesting. It would have made a good five to 10 minute side piece of another episode.I've had this series for months now and have only watched through the first three and a half seasons. It simply got too boring too fast. I would give the first two seasons five stars, but overall, I give this series three stars. Repetition is great for those who catch only a single episode since it fills in some of the necessary components, but there is simply way too much repetition when watching every single episode in order.

"We are just lucky to live in a time when the stars are shining, so we can discern the observable universe and learn a great deal about it". I'm paraphrasing Alexi Filippenko, my favorite scientist in the show. I wish I had a teacher like him during my school days. I'd say every kid must watch this show and learn Astrophysics when they're very young. I'd have loved to learn Newton's / Kepler's laws in school had they been explained the way they were in this show! If every kid all over the world were given an opportunity to see this show, I am guessing the world would be a better place. Forget your quarrels, petty differences, polluting ways!This show invigorates and motivates you to keep learning. I didn't know water was so rare (liquids in general) in the universe. To think we have a great pacific garbage patch here in a blatant disregard and disrespect for our environment is just plain callous and blind!Any way:1. Great graphics2. Articulate scientists explaining science in laymen's term. Also, give you adequate jargon for you to Google.3. Learn a great deal. Hard to say this to TV shows in general these days.I was able to see some reuse of graphics & interviews to emphasis overlapping subjects. Guess I was able to do that only since I watched the show like a madman on Netflix under a month. (Yes, I have to work for a living ;))

Along with Through the Wormhole and Cosmos this series gave me a taste of what I didn't know and had no idea existed in the Universe I inhabit. It blows apart many things I was taught in school, such as all matter is made up of atoms that are made up of protons, electrons and neutrons. Now I find out that not even a small portion of the universe fits this definition. In fact the majority of the "stuff" in the universe exists to us only by how it affects the "stuff" we can detect. Dark matter, until just recently detected by CERN, was one of these. It is far greater in quantity than the matter I was taught made up the universe and now we find that dark energy, only known because it is pushing the galaxies to expand rather than as we were taught, contract, makes up the majority of our Universe and we don't have a clue what it is. This was just from one part of one disc in this incredible set. I am still watching it every night and I am every night being blown away by what exists in this Universe in which I dwell. For anyone that wishes to know what the cutting edge of science knows about what has evolved since the Big Bang this series in required viewing.

Gave this series four stars because:Content and guests and narrator are top notch- terrific presentation.Now the downside: who did the production on these shows?? The soundtrack, background music, sounds, etc are way too LOUD. They compete with the talking sometimes drowning out what is being said. This is very distracting and there are no subtitles available. If you are willing to get past this, the content is excellent.

If you are into space and want something educational as well as entertaining with great visual effects.....this is a must have for any blue ray collection.

This series covered a wide range of topics including cosmology, space exploration, and astrobiology. Lots of professors from many different universities explain the topics.I give it 5 stars because it is better than 4 and I couldn't rate it at 4.5. What's missing? Despite the wide range advanced topics included, the series insists on avoiding scientific notation and instead says things like a million billion billion. In my opinion, "Ten-to-the-24" would be understood by 99% of the viewers, and the other 1% can learn scientific notation as a bonus.Also, if you are going to insist on using Fahrenheit degrees, don't just say "degrees". The metric system is taught in grade school in the USA, why not use it?Still, very enjoyable.

This series is disappointing. Although there are 'nuggets' of interesting information interspersed here and there, in general most of the footage, sound effects, and interviews seems to be primarily geared at holding the attention of a severely ADD teenager. The constant, 'booms', rock music, explosions (I dare not attempt to count them, but each episode probably consists of at least 100+ explosions accompanied by morose music) are wearying to relatively well-adjusted adults. Much of the science is vastly simplified. Finally, the dominant and repeated theme through a majority of the episodes seems to be how destructive all these celestial phenomena are. Well, of course they are, but this is like almost like a reality show on space given how much the destructive potential of space is emphasized.Bottom line: I wouldn't buy it if I'd know how ridiculous the hype and watered-down the information is.

Recently finished watching all episodes, and I feel that this amazing collection was worth every penny.Extremely entertaining show about our universe.Now I just ordered Season 6 and 7, and cannot wait for them to arrive, followed by Season 8 and beyond when released on Blu-ray..Very, very highly recommended if you enjoy this genre of documentary films.

The Universe is an awesome TV series. It is simply mind blowing and you can learn a lot and its explained in a very simple manner that you don't need to be a super genius to understand each episode. Definetly recommend this one if you're curious about the universe we live in. I ordered it yesterday and got it today took less than 24 hours on free shipping.