Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Episode 1, “Standing Up in the Milky Way” (May 7, 2014)
The first episode of the rebooted Cosmos sets a very high bar for the rest of the series.

Episode 2, “Some of the Things That Molecules Do” (March 18, 2014)
An overstuffed episode explains evolution, takes us to the sepulchral Halls of Extinction and plunges into the frigid seas of Titan.

Episode 3, “When Knowledge Conquered Fear” (March 24, 2014)
An almost flawless episode on the discovery of Halley’s Comet and how science banishes superstitious fear by explaining the true nature of the universe.

Episode 4, “A Sky Full of Ghosts” (April 1, 2014)
A sparse episode mentions cosmic distance scales and black holes, but could have spent more time explaining how we know the distances of astronomical objects.

Episode 5, “Hiding in the Light” (April 8, 2014)
An outstanding episode, tightly written and well-focused, on the scientists who studied the nature of light and what it reveals about our universe.

Episode 6, “Deeper, Deeper, Deeper Still” (April 15, 2014)
A clunker episode explores the microscopic and atomic worlds, but lacks a strong central narrative and shows an awful visual comparing the innards of the cell to an assembly line.

Episode 7, “The Clean Room” (April 23, 2014)
Cosmos gets political with an excellent episode on the age of the earth and how it led to the discovery of lead pollution.

Episode 8, “Sisters of the Sun” (April 28, 2014)
The scientific contributions of women are finally acknowledged in a superb episode about the lifecycles of the stars.

Episode 9, “The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth” (May 6, 2014)
The series hits its stride as it explores plate tectonics, mass extinction, and our reckless fossil-fuel use that’s causing climate change.

Episode 10, “The Electric Boy” (May 12, 2014)
Cosmos slows down the pace for a purely historical episode on the life of Michael Faraday.

Episode 11, “The Immortals” (May 20, 2014)
A speculative but wonderful episode shows what humanity at its best is capable of.

Episode 12, “The World Set Free” (June 2, 2014)
Cosmos returns to the well of climate change for a detailed rebuttal of denialist arguments.

Episode 13, “Unafraid of the Dark” (June 9, 2014)
The series comes to an end with a soaring finale and a humbling reminder of how much is still waiting for us to discover.