History YMMV / Cosmos

* HarsherInHindsight: During Sagan's discussion about chemical elements in "The Lives of the Stars", he makes a RunningGag about how nobody's ever heard of elements like yttrium or praseodymium; the series was made two years before personal computers became commonly available. Yttrium and praseodymium are among the ''rare earth elements,'' and today they're of enormous economic, strategic and geopolitical importance to electronics manufacturing.

* HarsherInHindsight: During Sagan's discussion about chemical elements in "The Lives of the Stars", he makes a RunningGag about nobody ever hearing about elements like yttrium or praseodymium; the series was made two years before personal computers became commonly available. Yttrium and praseodymium are among the ''rare earth elements,'' and today they're of enormous economic, strategic and geopolitical importance to electronics manufacturing.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Interestingly, although many of the details are no longer accurate, remarkably few of the theories and principles Sagan discusses have been completely supplanted by more current research. The DVD commentary discusses this, and Ann Druyan, in her introduction to the first episode, states that, 20 years after the fact, at least, the series needed little revision. That said, when the series was rebroadcast by PBS in the early 1990s each episode ended with newly recorded comments by Sagan discussing any points either proven wrong or new discoveries related to the episode since it first aired.

* MemeticMutation: "Billions and billions", or any other -illion, said in Sagan's characteristic way. Actually he [[BeamMeUpScotty never said]] "billions and billions" in the show, but he [[AscendedMeme acknowledged it]] in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billions_and_Billions:_Thoughts_on_Life_and_Death_at_the_Brink_of_the_Millennium his final book.]]

* TearJerker:
** The episode devoted to Kepler and Tycho Brahe. "Who Speaks for Earth" qualifies as well, especially the segments where he talks about how humanity has so much potential for advancement and knowledge, yet all too often listens to paranoia or short-sighted greed.
** Sagan's description of nuclear war in the same episode is as heart-rending as it is [[NightmareFuel terrifying]]. Especially the part where he talks about the "additional agonies" that will be suffered by survivors in the aftermath.
** Tyson's monologue at the end of the premiere episode of the 2014 series. Anyone who was inspired by a mentor will get teary eyed when he talks about how he knew he wanted to be a scientist, but that day Sagan showed him the kind of person he wanted to be.
** He expounds upon that memory in "A Sky Full of Ghosts," where he likens Sagan to one of those very ghosts in the sky, a star whose light still shines long after it's gone.
** Tyson's monologue at the end of episode 10, "The Electric Boy" about how the discoveries of Michael Faraday helped transform humanity from a patchwork of scattered, isolated towns, villages, and cities into the globally connected society we are today and how those same forces connect us to the cosmos itself.
** The final episode of the season has a CallBack to Giordano Bruno when Neil talks about the history of science and the importance of free thought--for a few seconds we see Giordano Bruno languishing in his prison cell, before he "escapes" into his dream of the infinite cosmos.
** ''Vavilov'': The heroic agricultural scientists starving to death in the Leningrad Siege despite having lots of seeds at their disposal, essentially sacrificing themselves for the sake of a brighter future for mankind.

* WhatAnIdiot: One hopes that the real Humphry Davy did not peer at the nitrogen trichloride from quite so close as he was shown to in "The Electric Boy", particularly after remarking that his colleague had completely lost an eye and several fingers to it.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Sagan spares no expense in stressing the importance of promoting science and knowledge of the world, as well as raising awareness of the dangers of irrationality. The reboot is not shy about describing the need for scientific discovery to be free of the shackles of government and religion.
** The second episode of ''A Personal Voyage'' ("One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue") has Sagan stating simply and concisely that evolution is a fact of life, not just a theory, as well as discussing the pitfalls of intelligent design.
** While talking about the hunting of whales, Sagan refers to the practice as "whale murder"
** The first half of the last episode is basically "why nuclear weapons are a BAD IDEA"
** Neil spends a good bit of the second episode explaining evolution, stating it as a fact and not "something that's going to go away."
** In the episode "A Sky Full of Ghosts," Neil very matter-of-factly explains that due to our advanced ability to perceive how light travels through time and space, there's no way that the Earth can be only 6,000 or 7,000 years old, despite beliefs to the contrary. He goes on to stress that to believe otherwise is to discount most of the light from our galaxy, not to mention the rest of the cosmos.
** Similarly, both the fourth episode "Hiding in the Light" and the seventh episode "The Clean Room" make it clear that science should not and cannot be shackled under any type of control by organizations or institutions with ulterior motives for it to progress forward. (Which, of course, is not to say that scientific progress should divorce itself from ethics.)
--->"How many minds have we left in the rubble?"
** Episode 9 of the reboot has Tyson give an impassioned plea for the use of sustainable and clean solar power instead of fossil fuels, pointing out that our reckless usage of them is setting the Earth's climate on track to a state it was in during the time of the dinosaurs, which would be catastrophic and probably result in a mass extinction, and Tyson [[ArmorPiercingQuestion questions]] just why nobody is willing to use the unlimited and free energy supplied by [[ThePowerOfTheSun the Sun]].
** Episode 11 shows us all the ways civilizations have died in the past and could die in the future before Neil suggests that our intelligence can and should be used as a survival mechanism, so that our next "Golden Age" could start on January 1st of the new cosmic calendar. It's not ''so'' far-fetched to imagine a ''Franchise/StarTrek''-like utopia... if we choose to follow that path rather than short-term greed, hatred, and fear.
** Episode 12, "The World Set Free", could almost be called "Yes, FOX Viewers, Climate Change is Real."
** The season finale, "Unafraid Of The Dark" reminds viewers that ScienceMarchesOn and established beliefs we have today may be disproved in the future. To question established beliefs and to use solid evidence and facts rather than believing what makes you comfortable, is one of the hallmarks of science and progress.

** ''Vavilov'': The heroic agricultural scientists starving to death in the Leningrad Siege despite having lots of grains and seeds at their disposal, essentially sacrificing themselves for the sake of a brighter future.

** The final episode has a CallBack to Giordano Bruno when Neil talks about the history of science and the importance of free thought--for a few seconds we see Giordano Bruno languishing in his prison cell, before he "escapes" into his dream of the infinite cosmos.

** Episode 11 shows us all the ways civilizations have died in the past and could die in the future before Neil suggests that our intelligence can and should be used as a survival mechanism, so that our next "Golden Age" could start on January 1st of the new cosmic calendar. It's not ''so'' far-fetched to imagine a ''Franchise/StarTrek''-like utopia... if we choose to follow that path rather than short-term greed, hatred, and fear.[[note]]Which, as of 2017, it seems like we are ''[[HarsherInHindsight not]]'' doing...[[/note]]

** The 2014 series has been accused of going out of its way to attack religion, particularly the first episode's lengthy tangent on the life of Giordano Bruno. Tyson has responded that he has no problem with religion itself, only its practitioners who are too narrow-minded to consider the validity of science. Subsequent episodes bear this out by various neutral and positive mentions of religion (Tyson speaks highly of the Golden Age in the medieval Islamic world ) and demonstrating how scientists themselves can be biased to downright unethical, like Dr. Robert Kehoe's work for the lead industry.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** The theme tune, and most of the background music. It's by Music/{{Vangelis}}, after all. Also, the ''[[http://www.symphonyofscience.com Symphony of Science]]'' auto-tune {{Voice Clip Song}}s all contain remixed ''Cosmos'' scenes, of which one is almost entirely based on ''Cosmos''.
** [[http://youtubedoubler.com/aTHY Here's]] the "Pale Blue Dot" monologue coupled with a Music/SnoopDogg instrumental. [[note]]The two men [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/carl-sagan-marijuana_n_3367112.html have more in common than you might think]].[[/note]]
** Music/AlanSilvestri's music for the new version isn't anything to sneeze at either (the producers initially approached him to only write the theme music, but Silvestri was so impressed with the first episode that he signed to score the entire series). The Emmys certainly agreed, as Silvestri won for his theme music and his score for the first episode (it should be noted that this was his first ever nomination).

* MostWonderfulSound: The original ''Cosmos'' is known as much for Sagan's sonorous voice as for being a groundbreaking educational program.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: In the Neil deGrasse Tyson version, some of the effects of both the starship and the imagery on offer are absolutely gorgeous.

* ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch: The griping about Tyson portraying medieval and ancient people as ignorant fools. They must have missed the numerous instances of Tyson saying ''explicitly'' that medieval and ancient people had perfectly logical reasons for their worldview given the tools they had, knew comparatively more about their world than we do about the universe today, and should ''not'' be considered ignorant fools just because they hadn't invented advanced tools and methods yet. (For example, though he explains why ''contemporary'' belief in a 6,000-year-old universe is ridiculous, he walks through Bishop Ussher's thought process as quite logical given that it was the best information he had available.)

** The second episode of ''A Personal Voyage'' has Sagan stating simply and concisely that evolution is a fact of life, not just a theory.

** The incredibly garish, Phong-shaded CGI of the chlorophyll production line. It's like the Ship of the Imagination went back in time to

** Episode 11 shows us all the ways civilizations have died in the past and could die in the future before Neil suggests that our intelligence can and should be used as a survival mechanism, so that our next "Golden Age" could start on January 1st of the new cosmic calendar. It's not ''so'' far-fetched to imagine a ''Franchise/StarTrek''-like utopia... if we choose to follow that path rather than short-term greed, hatred, and fear.[[note]]Which, as of 2017, it seems like we are ''[[OhCrap not]]'' doing...[[/note]]

** The incredibly garish, Phong-shaded CGI of the chlorophyll production line. It's like the Ship of the Imagination went back in time to have it rendered in the mid-90s.
* NarmCharm: Tyson lifting the rocks off mountains at the beginning of Episode 7 of the 2014 series. Who knew that Tyson was a [[Franchise/StarWars Jedi]], and a powerful one at that? ;)

** Creator/AlanSilvestri's music for the new version isn't anything to sneeze at either (the producers initially approached him to only write the theme music, but Silvestri was so impressed with the first episode that he signed to score the entire series). The Emmys certainly agreed, as Silvestri won for his theme music and his score for the first episode (it should be noted that this was his first ever nomination).