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Rating: 
Summary: The dramatic introduction to the PBS series on "Evolution"
Review: "Evolution" is as much about the profound impact the evolutionary process has had on our understanding of the world around us as it is on the various versions of the theory that have been expounded in scientific textbooks for the past century. The series basically focuses on five key concepts regarding evolution, sandwiched between episodes that constitute a dramatic introduction and a controversial coda. "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," the first episode in the "Evolution" series, offers dramatizations of key moments in Darwin's life along with contemporary talking heads explaining the profound implications of the evolutionary theory and the place it holds in the scientific community today as a pivotal concept. It takes a while to adjust to the episodic approach of the dramatizations, which come and go without a real sense of regularity, but since they dramatized the famous retort of Huxley to Bishop Wilberforce and other key moments in the popularization of evolution there is a certain effectiveness to it all. What you get from this episode is a better idea of what the initial complaints were to evolutionary theory and who was making them. In other words, this is more history and politics than science, which is fine, because that allows us to move from what we know about evolution, the controversy, to what we do not understand, the scientific theories covered under that highly charged term. "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" can stand on its own (the first time I caught it on television I did not know it was the introduction to a series), but it really should just whet your appetite for the rest of the episodes.
Rating:
Summary: The dramatic introduction to the PBS series on "Evolution"
Review: "Evolution" is as much about the profound impact the evolutionary process has had on our understanding of the world around us as it is on the various versions of the theory that have been expounded in scientific textbooks for the past century. The series basically focuses on five key concepts regarding evolution, sandwiched between episodes that constitute a dramatic introduction and a controversial coda. "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," the first episode in the "Evolution" series, offers dramatizations of key moments in Darwin's life along with contemporary talking heads explaining the profound implications of the evolutionary theory and the place it holds in the scientific community today as a pivotal concept. It takes a while to adjust to the episodic approach of the dramatizations, which come and go without a real sense of regularity, but since they dramatized the famous retort of Huxley to Bishop Wilberforce and other key moments in the popularization of evolution there is a certain effectiveness to it all. What you get from this episode is a better idea of what the initial complaints were to evolutionary theory and who was making them. In other words, this is more history and politics than science, which is fine, because that allows us to move from what we know about evolution, the controversy, to what we do not understand, the scientific theories covered under that highly charged term. "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" can stand on its own (the first time I caught it on television I did not know it was the introduction to a series), but it really should just whet your appetite for the rest of the episodes.
Rating: 
Summary: Good intro to Darwin and Evolution
Review: This two-hour docu-drama on Darwin's life and his discovery of evolution by natural selection is cleverly interspersed with relevant discussions regarding the controversies surrounding Darwin's dangerous idea, such as the displacement of God. Would have given this five stars, except that the close caption feature didn't seem to work. (Has anyone else experienced this difficulty?)
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