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Burns does it again. Clearly, concisely, and in a very engaging manner the first episode goes back 100 years to the root of the Vietnam conflict, outlaying all the players and driving forces on its march to America's growing involvement. From the narration by Peter Coyote to the score with Trent Reznor, which BTW goes much better than one would expect, along with first person narratives, arresting images and never seen documents, they all come together like cogs in this well oiled masterpiece of story telling. This may well be the most important documentary on this event to date.

As pointed out, doing this live was both exciting and a draw back. I watched it live and thought it was very good because of the scope of the material. Basically everything was scripted so what you had were people stepping on each other, missing their cues. But the information was quality on the subject with respected scientists and retired military officers describing cases that have yet to be explained as of today. They also contacted people from all over the world. Hoaxes were also touched upon. One of the reasons for this special was the then current flap in Gulf Breeze and the recent best seller on abductions, Communion. Some footage of abductees under hypnosis was also shown. The great thing about this program was that it focused on the best cases and had the best experts to outline the cases along with retired Air Force officers that were involved with Blue Book. If you are interested in the subject, you need to try and find a copy to watch.