This is awesome, but I have two concerns. Its on Fox and its produced by Seth MacFarlane. My hope is that he just used his ridiculous clout with Fox to force them to air it without fucking with it and in primetime so that maybe some of typical Family Guy/American Idol dumbfuck audiences will learn something.
I guess we'll see, but hopefully this doesn't turn out to be like modern Discovery Channel shit (like Shark Week where there's a lot of good material but unfortunately also a lot of just total trash that shouldn't be on there at all).
Yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm stoked for the series. This is the guy that sits in Sagan's seat right now, which is a huge deal.
For the most part, I like him. But where Sagan was a philosopher at heart and an endlessly curious and fascinated scientist and humanitarian by profession, Tyson comes off to me as a bit of a stodgy, smugified douchenozzle.
I don't mean this as disrespect, and I actually think he's a good educator for the general public; but watching him in various settings he doesn't really speak to rather diverse audiences and backgrounds in the same curious, respectful, and openly engaging manner that Sagan would.
What?!? Seriously, Tyson a douchenozzle? What the fuck?
I strongly disagree. I'd say that's why Tyson has basically taken over Sagan's "role" (as the pop culture face for astronomy and science in general), they both have this impossible ability to be the same person and approach every audience with the same candor. Maybe you've seen more of him than I have, but Tyson is pretty much the same everywhere.
Only thing I can think of is you're off put by the much more animated and excited demeanor Tyson tends to have. I love Sagan, but I think his demeanor actually worked against him as far as reaching wide audiences (although he did fit better in the typical academia panels). His slow deliberate style of talking can come off as pretentious/pompous if not outright boring. Tyson can be a bit of the opposite, but neither one I would describe as a douchenozzle, or stodgy and smugified. Definitely different demeanor and Tyson is not your typical personality when it comes to the field he's in.
Or maybe its less about who Tyson is and more about his popularity with the hiveminded hipster wannabe dickfaces on Reddit that is clouding your view of him?
Generally from what I've seen Tyson is doing an admirable job of not being a douche when confronted with some of the top level douches he's been put onstage with (Dawkins although there wasn't much of Dawkins douchey demeanor since I think there's mutual respect; I remember a clip of him on like Bill Maher when Bob Lutz was on there trying to act like he knows as much about climatology as anyone on Earth and some other spots that I can't recall as explicitly). Frankly, I don't know that Sagan had to put up with the vocal confrontational manner that is now common, especially from ignorant people that think their "beliefs" are more valid than anyone else's. No, I'm not saying Sagan didn't have to put up with those people (he definitely did and spent plenty of time addressing them, but I think the difference is he did so more indirectly), but he wouldn't have everything he said thrown on Youtube or deal with the rampant idiocy on places like Facebook and Twitter.
)
Facebook
Twitter