Rating: 
Summary: Good overview of Athens
Review: This was a good history lesson on the formation of Athens. Could have been much longer and more indepth on the politics though. Overall a good CD and worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent! but very biased towards Athens and it's history.
Review: Very well done. I enjoyed it as a novice of Greek History. I would very much like to have seen some of the other players in Greek history like the Spartans.
Rating: 
Summary: A good introduction to 5th and 4th century B.C. Athens
Review: While I agree with the criticisms below that this documentary is more about Athens than Greece, I still rate this as 5 stars. First, it does not entirely ignore other city-states, but gives a decent (not great) treatment of Sparta and Delphi, while mentioning (to a lesser extent) Olympia, Argos, Marathon, Salamis, and myriad other places. More importantly, however, this documentary's treatment of the most most important city-state in Greece (Athens) is magnificent. The cinematography is beautiful, the narration pleasant, and the material is presented in an intelligent manner. This documentary is nearly three-hours long and packs a punch, always talking up to its listiners and challenging them to understand the full import of a statement without beating you over the head with it. This is welcome, and all too rare among modern documentaries. Sure, the documentary could have been more comprehensive, and I was particularly disappointed with its non-treatment of Plato, Aristotle, and Alexander the Great (I would have included them and made it four hours), but hey, I'm still satisfied with what I got. Likewise, I would have added virtual recreations of the Acropolis, Agora, Delphi, and Olympia. The rest, however, I would not change. While it was not perfect, it was worth my money and I'll watch this documentary many, many more times to come. Recommended, but if you're not at all familiar with Greece, you'll appreciate this documentary more after you've read a general introduction to Greece (Edith Hamilton's Echo of Greece and The Greek Way are excellent places to start). By the way, this documentary comes with four extra scenes, each about 5 minutes long, on the Hoplites, Women, Delphi, and Greek Theatre. Not great, but worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: The Athenians did not accomplish everything.
Review: While I found this video to be very well produced and some of the information was new, I also found that it concentrated almost entirely on the Athenians. No mentioned was made of the great Mycenean culture nor did the Spartans get much credit for accomplishing anything except the cooking of almost inedible food. No mention of the 300 Spartans heroic defence of the pass at Thermopylae against thousands of Persians (and not an Athenian in sight by the way). Also no mentioned of the victory by the Spartans at the Battle of Platea which was the last battle of the Persian War. The DVD would have you believe that the Battle of Salamis (a naval battle) was the deciding and concluding battle of the Persian War and drove the Persian army out of Greece. If not for the Battle of Platea which conclusively defeated the Persians on land as well, the Persians could have very easily defeated the Athenians. Also, I found the DVD to have minor technical flaws which could have easily been corrected before it was put into production.
Rating:
Summary: The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization
Review: Wow! This is probably the best historical documentary I've ever seen. I've watched all the EMPIRES Specials on PBS and they really bring the past to life. Socrates, Pericles and a whole world of classical Greeks come to life as if they were living today. The show is visually exciting, and spares us the discomfort of watching actors prance around pretending to be Greeks. This show is much more tasteful and, consequently, dramatically powerful. LIAM NEESON narrates. This is a must for anyone who is even remotely interested in history.
Rating: 
Summary: Hopelessly devoid of information
Review: You'd think a PBS production on one of the most important and well-known civilizations in history would be worth watching, but you'd be wrong in this case. This video series has amazingly low information density: a few historical facts are thrown in to keep Liam Neeson half occupied in a slow narration, while the video footage consists mostly of long closeups of still actors posing as Socrates and Pericles, or of a few urns. There is almost no discussion of Greek mythology or gods, little discussion of city-states other than Athens and few references to Sparta, almost no discussion of architecture, etc etc. You'll mostly waste your time and money with these tapes. 15 minutes reading the most cursory and simple chapter of high school Greek history will give you three times the information. All in all, a big disappointment.
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