KEN BURNS, "The National Parks"

I think this is typical of what happens when someone has the reputation of Ken Burns. People become afraid to voice opinions on editing, or the producers give the director total control based on his past success. It happens with writers too. Editors either backdown or leave their red pens at home. Everyone assumes The Great Man can only get it right and they do not chime in. These large productions are usually at their best when many eyes edit and critique the work, but I think Mr. Burns has been allowed to become a totally immersed solo artist and he doesn't see the repetition in is work.

so you caught this too? I was wondering whether I was just being unreasonably critical.

I agree with you totally, farmer. There are some excellent things in this series, very well done, but the overall effect is one of sluggishness and repetition. It's piss-poor editing, for one thing. And maybe PBS told Burns to fill up a specific time slot and his ass is draggin'.

hmmm. I hope that it doesnt end in the same spirit. I was anticipating this for months.

have not seen any of it, but I'm wondering if Big Bend Texas N Park and Gila National Monument are included

Were only on episode 4 tonight (3 more to go). They seem to be following a historical sequence in which they discuss the Parks as they were entered into the list .

I digress;
During one of Aldo Leopold's hunting trips into the Gila National Forest he eloquently stated, "We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes ... something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view." Such is the legacy of the Gila; a beautiful and unique forest with majestic mountains; a complex interwoven fabric of all living things.

I have been disappointed too! I was expecting something grander, like the Life on Earth series. I do appreciate the commentary and history, I just think it's a little boring. I fell asleep during the first episode.

thank you. I thought it was just me, or I was over-tired ...

Well, certainly I was over-tired (even on a Sunday night), but come on!

The annoying habit of jumping back and forth in a timeline is not adding anything to the series either. It gives me the feeling that they were editing this thing up till the last day.
I think there are plenty of spinoffs possible. Im especially interested in the "emptying" of the Great Smokies National Park of all the approximately 7500 residents who were hard scrabble hillbilly farmers.
Maybe te entire scope of the project got away from Burns and he tried to bring it back with the little vignettes of "ordinary" people interacting in the Nat Parks.

Oh well, Ive invested 4 days, Im goin for all 6 then I can bitch with greater understanding. Maybe itll all come together like a Tarrantino movie.

Dys, Theyve only been focusing on the foundation Parks and Monuments till now. Im hoping they have quality time of the more recent ones and those that have been full of controversy, like tyhe Civil War Battlefields within Virginia SHopping Centers.

I tried again for a while last night.

Decided the narrators' voices are part of what is causing me to react as if I'd been hit by a tranquillizer dart.

Also, there were a couple of weird black-out gaps last night that really bugged me. Maybe they were supposed to be for style/emphasis, but they were too long, so it looked and felt badly edited.

I think that the Witch and Merry got it right. Burns Civil War was a collaboration and Baseball and his later things were more and more just Burns POV. This one needs a good cleaning out and re shuffle (not to mention some better music)

That smokey mountain eviction broke my heart.

Tonights wasnt too bad since it was focusd more on the political and national arena of the 30's to WWII. Learned some stuff.

I tell ya, I'm getting sick of the shot of the little cabin at the base of the big redwood. I don't need to see repeat imagery.

Well, its over and I was (and I dont thinkl Im alone) "whelmed". Im not sure the value and t5he presentation. It wasnt a great documentary, It wasnt great history because they ;let so much out. Like the entire National Wildlife Services and the explosion of FEd Game lands. They also missed out on the regional aspects of how parks were started. They seem to ahve focused on the big 10 parks and made that the template of the whole schmear. It wasnt close.

Very dissapointed and I gave it a complete chaance to grow on me. Burns needs to go back to some roots of what makes these kinds of shows great.