Leonardo da Vinci

I found this documentary to be captivating and insightful. The degree of Da Vinci's scope, talents, creativity, and inquisitive nature are on full display. This doc shows how important and ahead of his time Leonardo's drawings, paintings, designs and scientific inquiries were.

Some of the bad reviews I've seen are almost laughable. It's boring or...it has some subtitles. Really? That speaks volumes of the mindset of some of the negative reviews. Dullards who seem to need popcorn mainstream fare, instead of a thoughtful, poetic, insight into one of the most magnificent minds this world has ever known.

Watch this documentary and be captivated by an inquisitive and supremely talented man and the amazing world he lives in.

This is not a review of the series, because I think it is compelling and interesting.

My review is of the idiocy of the reviews. The main complaint seems to be that there are subtitles and people don't want to read, which to me is pure laziness. Italians speak italian. Get over it. If you need things narrated for you and hate hearing non-English speakers, you are the problem. Not this documentary.

And the other complaint is there is not enough focus on the Mona Lisa, which has been discussed ad nauseum by others. I loved learning about his sketches and writings and smaller works. This is not a Mona Lisa doc. There are plenty of others out there for you to watch.

Reviewers, do better.

Ken Burns makes solid, comprehensive documentaries about self-counsciously big subjects - not for him small, quirky tales. Leonarda da Vinci is thus perhaps an unsurprising subject, and the result is genuinely educational, but also extremely reverential. The narrative talks about the maestro's sense of fun, but the documentary itself is characterised by awe. In its conclusion, it does mention that a previous view, of Leonardo as a self-contained superman aside from broader renaissance thought, has gone out of fashion; but it might almost be seen as trying to restore it. To its credit, the series isn't all gush, and it does explain what made his art (and thinking) revolutionary. It's certainly worth watching even if it tries a bit too hard.

The problems with this documentary is a lack of structure.

It is presented in a chronological order. But it lacked cohesiveness. There was no over arching theme. A plot if you will.

It develops character, but lacked real substance. Why did he do something? It goes from vignette to vignette without any regard for the audience. I never felt like I was part of anything that was presented. It never drew me in.

Focus on one aspect of his life, rather than presenting a shot gun approach. Segmentation instead of fragmentation.

The way it was presented... Well the kindest thing I can say was: there cert was no lack of slowness.

Okay. So. Two 2-hour episodes make up this documentary on da Vinci on PBS. It has the Burns name attached to it, and is about a fascinating subject, so what could you possibly not like about it?

It turns out it is boring to the point where I was unable to stay awake. I am so disappointed in this. It had nothing new to add to the wonderful Isaacson biography and frankly, I'm not sure why they made it... unless it was because they needed something for their membership drive.

It would have been okay if there was nothing new AND if what was presented was done so elegantly -- beautifully -- and gracefully. But it lacked those things. It was tedious. I felt like I SHOULD like it because it was Ken Burns and on PBS. But I did not like it.

Trying to watch it, I felt it wandered aimlessly and totally missed a sense of cohesion.

If you watched it and enjoyed it I am so glad for you. I did watch the whole thing but felt it was a waste of time.

It made me want t go back to rewatch da Vinci's Demons. It was crazy but it was fun crazy. This was simply... tedious.