"Evolution" (2002) TV series

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

5 May 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Liam Neeson

...

Narrator (7 episodes, 2002)

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Clear Blue Sky Productions

Quotes:

Erasmus Darwin: [after hearing Charles's remarks about how delicious some of the South American game is] So, now we know why they became extinct - eaten by Charlie Darwin!

Interesting throughout, dispels a lot of misconceptions

This PBS mini-series is first rate. Filmed in locations all over the world, it explains in an engaging way the theory of evolution, which is the cornerstone of understanding biology. The episode about Charles Darwin is the best. It's cool to see a TV show with some of my Victorian-era heroes like Adam Sedgwick and Richard Owen attending a lecture given by the young Darwin who has just brought back amazing mammal fossils from South America to England. Darwin, his family, and Captain Fitzroy are shown as real people, although Fitzroy comes off as almost fanatically religious. I have read that he was not like that in real life, but was a devout man.

The energetic orator Huxley debates Bishop Wilberforce in the famous evolution debate and enjoys his verbal sparring in a great scene.

The last episode in the series, "What About God?" interviews scientists like Dr. Philip Johnson who accept evolution and have actually had their faith in God strengthened when they think of the marvelous way the world and universe have been unfolding and changing over the millions of years.

The final episode also takes you into the homes of some college students at Wheaton College, an American fundamentalist Christian college, and the struggles of its science professors to be able to speak freely about evolution (a science). It really opens your eyes about the oppression that still exists in the good old USA. The show takes you into the wild, wacky and depressing world of Australian fundamentalist mind control a la Ken Ham and his Creationist ministries. This show isn't propaganda for evolution. My own personal experience with mind controllers teaching against evolution in the fundamentalist churches has shown me that the problem is very real and the PBS series' final episode hasn't exaggerated a thing.