The Search for Intelligent Life on Earth

This series sure has a way of totally taking us by surprise, having us expect one thing and then showing us a totally different perspective. Learning that bees can not only do maths but also use it for advanced navigation, and have a social system based on reason and arguments, was as stunning as learning about the Big Bang.

I absolutely love this series but this episode is extra special. I'm so grateful to the creators of this series.

This episode has a lot of cool stuff. It mostly explores how animals communicate and work cooperatively. The episode mentions how poor humans have been at detecting the nuance of other life's activities.

The episode implies how difficult it might be to detect life from an alien world if we can't even very easily determine what other life on earth is capable of doing.

Probable the coolest example shown in the episode of some behavior we have decoded is how bees communicate through figure 8 movement and wiggles, where they think other bees should go for food or shelter.

I found it very informative and entertaining. The entire 2014 and 2019 Cosmos team does an incredible job of storytelling and communicating. I've so far seen 4 of the possible worlds episodes. Of those 4, this one was my favorite. And that's not to say that I didn't like the others as well.

This was in no way a 10/10 episode. It was an hour special dedicated to effing bees. I expected to see more about outer space communications.

Where to start? First of all, this instalment of Cosmos is the weakest in the series. Neil Tyson deGrasse was tolerable in the other series he hosted up to this point but sadly there is a huge decline in the substance and narration in the series in general & in this episode. IMHO Carl Sagan would not care for Neil's assumptions and scientism. Let's face it, Mr. DeGrasse is not in the same league as Carl Sagan. I can watch episodes of the original mini-series over & over again.

The only reason this episode warrants a 3 from your truly, is due to the filming of the episode. As usual that is top notch.

IMHO it's time for Seth Macfarlane & Neil to take a permanent vacation from Cosmos.