the best documentary series (award + review)

i've been bored out of my mind lately so i've been watching heaps of old series saved deep in my laptop (and wasting time here obviously)

so i thought i would do a review of what is, in my opinion, the best ever documentary series ever. now there were a few contenders to the best ever title so it wasn't a clear choice.

there were plenty of classic attenboroughs (and also life of plants) that came close. the episode of louis theroux 'law and disorder in johannesburg' came to mind, but a single episode isint a series. despite being complete bullshit (and so not actually a documentary) and also a movie (and so not actually a series) i also considered chariots of the gods, based solely on it's amusement value.

the strongest challenge to the ultimate best ever doco series came from the original walking with dinosaurs, more likely than not because it came out while i was a wee lad and so blew my dinosaur-obsessed mind. at the end of the series when the narrator says "we now know one group of dinosaurs did survive the extinction... and they are all around us today" and then shows birds and the credits play; that still can give me shivers to think about.

but, good as they may be, none of these are the best documentary series ever in my opinion. the best ever series is, somewhat unfortunately given its dark subject, 'the world at war', a bbc series from 1973.

the subject of the world at war is unsurprisingly the second world war, and is impressively comprehensive. the series is a staggering 26 fifty-minute episodes, with each focusing on a different aspect of the conflict.

two things in particular make the series truly great. firstly, the series includes an amazing compilation of first-hand footage. even when what is on screen is of no especially great significance it is still fascinating to see the real participants as they were, their behaviors and surroundings etc. in what almost feels like a fuck you to the reenactment-heavy documentaries of this day and age, the creator of the series appears before the start of the episode on the naval war in the north atlantic to apologize to the viewer for a relative lack of genuine historical footage.

the second thing that makes this series truly impressive is the interviews. by virtue of being made 30 years after the war many of its primary actors (or else ppl who were very close to them) were still alive. the big names among those interviewed include donitz and speer, lemay (the chief of japan's "strategic" boming), minoru genda (who planned the pearl harbour attack) and traudl junge (hitler's secretary)

both of these aspects reenforce each other to make the series highly watchable. when you see footage of the human results of germany's slave-labor program followed immediately by an interview with the man who devised and executed the scheme; that's high-impact television.

the series is also not afraid to show grizzlier footage; charred infants, bombing of cities, dismembered soldiers and citizens suicideing for the glory of the emperor are shown in all their horror. this rules the series out for the school-aged, but it serves the important task of not glorifying the conflict for adult viewers, something modern-day war documentaries often fail to even attempt to do.

the series has a few downsides. some episodes are not terribly interesting, such as the one covering the conflict in burma, and by virtue of the ongoing cold war at time of production there is a noticeable lack of first-hand footage from the eastern front and other theaters at times. the historian stephen ambrose also makes an appearance and is distractingly nerdy. it is also by no means a definitive account of the war: some figures we now know to be incorrect, and many smaller aspects of the largest war of all time are by necessity omitted. 

all in all though the series is essential viewing for anybody over the age of 15 who wants to hold an opinion on the second world war. in no other ww2 series that i know of can you see such downright interesting footage such as a kamikaze slamming in to the deck of the ship the cameraman is filming from tastefully presented (i.e. with no awful voice over or constant replays). and in the end the little details of the footage remain after the viewing is finished: a destitute infant struggling through rubble, or the image of a girl in occupied germany raped and beaten by the victors.

so for the aforementioned reasons and more the winner of the best documentary series in my opinion is: the world at war. depressing, old, long and most of all depressing, the series is a triumph of content.

gritty and thorough, i genuinely feel that even the most knowledgeable of ww2 buffs would benefit from a viewing of the world at war (although any buff would obviously already be familiar with the series)

most importantly a watching of world at war would, i think, be most beneficial to those whose knowledge of ww2 comes primarily from "history channel" reenactments and first-person shooter games. not just because it avoids glorifying the conflict, but also because when viewed in its entirety the series provides a fairly complete picture of what is without a doubt the largest event in human history (as in: you wont end up over-emphasizing one battle you happened to catch a half-hour show on one night without an understanding of the broader context) 

so better type "world at war torrent" in to google and click the piratebay result then download it. but do it in sections cause it's 17 gig