Anyone else like documentaries?
- Thread starter gennie
- Start date
Just learned of this show yesterday when my best friend highly highly recommended it. She said it had places I hung out in. Maybe I'll see myself, LOL. Thanks for the reminder.
Ruth n Jersey
Well-known Member
- Location
- Northern New Jersey
I love documentaries. Just last night the hubby and I watched one about the lady who was able to break all the codes used during the war by our enemies. Another good one was on the production of wheat and how they were able to make wheat more resistant to insects, drought and wind. Most of these are on our PBS station.
moviequeen1
SF VIP
- Location
- Buffalo,NY
depending on the subject, I do like watching documentaries
I find them on PBS,Smithsonian,History Channels
I find them on PBS,Smithsonian,History Channels
I watch more documentaries than dramas. I just wish they wouldn't try to turn the documentaries INTO dramas....all those re-enactments and dramatic music I find very distracting. Plus, they go to all that trouble and expense to put the programme together and then drown everything in loud music so you can't hear the commentary!
RadishRose
SF VIP
- Location
- Connecticut, USA
Doc are my favorite, but comedy is way up there too.
Murrmurr
SF VIP
- Location
- Sacramento, California
I live on documentaries but mostly nature and science ones. I like ones about old crimes and how forensics and detective work has evolved, too.
Irwin
Well-known Member
- Location
- Denver, Colorado, U.S.A.
I never knew how funny Fran Lebowitz was until we watched that series! We enjoyed it so much, I ordered the other one she and Scorsese did from Netflix on DVD called Public Speaking. It might arrive today.
Same here. Roku, Netflix and Prime often recommend as in "here's something we think you'll like" and I rarely do. It's usually some bit of fluff that is unwatchable.
Mr. Ed
Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
- Location
- Central NY
I like time period documentaries such Warriors, Vikings, political/industrial coverups, NSA/CIA/FBI, everyday, normal documentaries.
MarciKS
SF VIP
- Location
- Great Plains
It depends on the content. Occasionally I find some I like.
i used to ........ some newer ones seem to slant items to paint a narrative ......
usually can tell by who is funding it or producing it.
If they explain the details both pro and con and let the viewer decide count me in .................if they cherry pick or gloss over details count me out.
usually can tell by who is funding it or producing it.
If they explain the details both pro and con and let the viewer decide count me in .................if they cherry pick or gloss over details count me out.
asp3
Senior Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley, CA
I love documentaries but don't watch a huge number of them. My favorite ones are about music. Some of my favorites are Saving Silverman, 20 Feet From Stardom and Eat That Question. I also love political documentaries, but generally only left leaning ones.
I a way I somewhat consider Nova shows on TV to be mini science documentaries.
I a way I somewhat consider Nova shows on TV to be mini science documentaries.
ManjaroKDE
Member
I like documentaries but watch them now with a questionable/cautious mind. After all the changes and beliefs to scientific/medical/social realms, I realize that most are just somewhat educated opinions. Reality shows are mostly fake or enhanced for viewership. So what or who do you believe? Science is advertised as exact, but subject to change and it will change from our diets, healthcare and on.
Murrmurr
SF VIP
- Location
- Sacramento, California
Not an argument, Manjaro, just want to say re: science; While some scientific facts are accepted as fact because they have been proven multiple times, science itself is a study. Phenomena are observed, identified, described, investigated through experimentation, and then scientists either explain it or prove it to establish it as fact, or they come up with a theory that might explain it while they keep studying it.
Scientists still haven't explained gravity. They know what it does, but they don't know exactly what it is. They see black matter but they don't know it's purpose or exactly what it's made of, there are only theories. What I find interesting about science is that scientists don't know all the facts and "exactly's", and I like to watch them try to uncover them. If a science documentary says stuff like "scientists theorize..." and "scientists know this much, (but)..." then I know it's not a bunk documentary.
Watched an excellent documentary, Judi Dench "my passion for trees" I learnt a lot. I love comedy but cannot find north american humour very funny. Maybe it was growing up with "till death do us part", "some mothers do have em" now I watch reruns of Miranda, she's hilarious. I wonder if other ex pats feel the same?
Lara
Friend of the Arts
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic Coast
Watched "Down to Earth" with Zac Efron & Darin Olien on Netflix while I did chores. They were fun to watch but I was already aware of much of the info....yet still learned a little more and interesting.
1. Iceland...how they smoke their food when they have no trees was gross
2. Drinking water comparisons and how Paris has managed to have the best clean water available free for everyone in their city and has figured out how to eliminate the overuse of plastic bottles. Some of their fountains even have healthiest sparkling water...free for all
3. Expats in Costa Rica living off the land...I didn't know banana trees only produce one bunch of bananas...then they just cut the whole tree down
I guess they aren't tree-huggers there
4. Blue Zone in Greece are not fans of much protein. Didn't watch much of this one...too nice of a day to keep watching
1. Iceland...how they smoke their food when they have no trees was gross
2. Drinking water comparisons and how Paris has managed to have the best clean water available free for everyone in their city and has figured out how to eliminate the overuse of plastic bottles. Some of their fountains even have healthiest sparkling water...free for all
3. Expats in Costa Rica living off the land...I didn't know banana trees only produce one bunch of bananas...then they just cut the whole tree down
I guess they aren't tree-huggers there4. Blue Zone in Greece are not fans of much protein. Didn't watch much of this one...too nice of a day to keep watching
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asp3
Senior Member
- Location
- Silicon Valley, CA
I just watched this and I thought it was more about Fran Lebowitz and her experience, views and insights in and around NYC than about the city itself. I did enjoy it overall but Fran is somewhat of an acquired taste.
ChiroDoc
Senior Member
- Location
- The Dixie Riviera
Old thread, but hoping to revitalize it. I'm a fan of documentaries, although many now days are social justice subjects which don't interest me. Here's a good one I watched recently with some commentary:
Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (2024)
This six part docu-series by director Joe Berlinger is an innovative exploration of Hitler’s beginnings, his establishment of the Nazi Party, Hitler’s gradual rise to absolute power, and his inexorable demise.
There are a plethora of films, documentaries, and series that address the rise and end of the Third Reich, but uniquely Berlinger has used as a basis the 10 month Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46 as an effective outline for the viewer to follow the Reich’s 12 year existence. The subject matter is both fascinating and horrific, although important historically. One confronts its nightmarish unfolding with the same trepidation as one approaches a deathly auto accident: one doesn’t think one ought to look, but one does.
The continuous return to the actual process of the Nuremberg trials, both in archival footage and with reenactments, holds the entire project together, much like the laces on a shoe. What helps bring the whole enterprise to a modern feel is the expert colorization of both the actual trial footage along with other archival footage, much of which had been filmed by Nazi crews during their campaign. The colorization makes it all seem real in contrast to black and white photography which has the effect of making historical events feel ancient and less relevant.
There are only two minor criticisms. Some of the actors portraying the Nazi inner group looked nothing like the real individuals, especially so in their choice of the actor to portray Hitler. However the role of Heinrich Himmler was a very good likeness. Also early on they made a few tasteless inferences relating to a prominent contemporary politician, but thankfully they didn’t continue with that type of thing.
Naturally they had to show videos and stills portraying the results of the tremendous barbarity directed at Jews and some other classes, but only what was necessary to get the point firmly across. I was surprised to learn that Jews were only 1% of the German population, and that they early on had been given warnings to immigrate out of the country. But many simply did not believe that they were in such horrific danger until it was too late.
5 million Jews were murdered in the camps in Germany and Poland. 60 million people lost their lives as the result of the war, most of whom were civilians. In late 1941 Hitler lost one-third of his army in the futile attempt to conquer Russia and to capture moscow. He didn’t realize it then, but that was the early death blow to his evil campaign.
There was ample mention of Hitler's right hand man, Hermann Goring's morphine addiction. But there was no mention of Hitler's own use of amphetamine, which has the potential to adversely effect normal people. But in Hitler's case we have a psychopath who took powerful stimulants on top of an already dangerous state of mind. That may have sped up his descending into madness.
This is a galvanizing series well directed by one of our leading innovators of true crime documentaries.
Doc’s rating: 8/10
Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial (2024)
This six part docu-series by director Joe Berlinger is an innovative exploration of Hitler’s beginnings, his establishment of the Nazi Party, Hitler’s gradual rise to absolute power, and his inexorable demise.
There are a plethora of films, documentaries, and series that address the rise and end of the Third Reich, but uniquely Berlinger has used as a basis the 10 month Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46 as an effective outline for the viewer to follow the Reich’s 12 year existence. The subject matter is both fascinating and horrific, although important historically. One confronts its nightmarish unfolding with the same trepidation as one approaches a deathly auto accident: one doesn’t think one ought to look, but one does.
The continuous return to the actual process of the Nuremberg trials, both in archival footage and with reenactments, holds the entire project together, much like the laces on a shoe. What helps bring the whole enterprise to a modern feel is the expert colorization of both the actual trial footage along with other archival footage, much of which had been filmed by Nazi crews during their campaign. The colorization makes it all seem real in contrast to black and white photography which has the effect of making historical events feel ancient and less relevant.
There are only two minor criticisms. Some of the actors portraying the Nazi inner group looked nothing like the real individuals, especially so in their choice of the actor to portray Hitler. However the role of Heinrich Himmler was a very good likeness. Also early on they made a few tasteless inferences relating to a prominent contemporary politician, but thankfully they didn’t continue with that type of thing.
Naturally they had to show videos and stills portraying the results of the tremendous barbarity directed at Jews and some other classes, but only what was necessary to get the point firmly across. I was surprised to learn that Jews were only 1% of the German population, and that they early on had been given warnings to immigrate out of the country. But many simply did not believe that they were in such horrific danger until it was too late.
5 million Jews were murdered in the camps in Germany and Poland. 60 million people lost their lives as the result of the war, most of whom were civilians. In late 1941 Hitler lost one-third of his army in the futile attempt to conquer Russia and to capture moscow. He didn’t realize it then, but that was the early death blow to his evil campaign.
There was ample mention of Hitler's right hand man, Hermann Goring's morphine addiction. But there was no mention of Hitler's own use of amphetamine, which has the potential to adversely effect normal people. But in Hitler's case we have a psychopath who took powerful stimulants on top of an already dangerous state of mind. That may have sped up his descending into madness.
This is a galvanizing series well directed by one of our leading innovators of true crime documentaries.
Doc’s rating: 8/10
