Bebè: viaggio nel primo anno di vita

This is an excellent series that looks at several aspects of infant development: bonding, growth, movement, eating and language. It introduces us to 4 babies and then shows us the research that was done to measure these areas of development. A common research question is the extent to which infants are born with the capacity for development in these areas and how parents can enhance development. It also speaks to the prenatal care that can promote development. Meeting the families keeps the studies and research conclusions from being dry. The videos and measurements sharpened the viewers' attention to what was happening and showed us how very subtle are the signs of development. Hearing the scientists' observations and conclusions while also seeing the personal lives of the babies made for the most meaningful understanding of the content.

These experts talk so slowly and with so much pause between their scentences, and every 2 or 3 lines they stop to show some shots of people just walking around or going in and out of buildings. Very little of it is actually informative. As a mom to be I thought this might be really interesting and helpful, but each shocking new discovery they make is neither shocking nor new, and takes almost an hour to reveal. 75% of this documentary is just filler.

The episodes don't have any point...just stating the obvious.

Guys,

Have you ever seen a documentary? If so, you probably know that most of them are extended beyond proportion and the whole information in a documentary could be presented in one minute.

"Babies" are no different. Basically every episode can be summed up in a one line sentence. For example "spend time with your children, it is good for them."

I do not write reviews often but I just wanted to come here and save you some time. If you have really nothing to do or for example you are making a dinner, house cleaning, you can run it as a background. I have given up after 3 episodes.

As others have mentioned, not particularly good science. They might not want to go into the specifics of the research, but even I can see flaws in how it is conducted. Correlation vs. causation? Double-blind testing?I can't see the reputations of the researchers being helped by this.

It's also frustratingly Western oriented. The only non-Western country visited so far is Singapore, but it's all about a Western researcher working there. What about different cultures? Cambodia? Japan?

I have a professional interest in this, from a machine learning perspective, and while I wasn't expecting hard science, this is disappointing.