One Strange Rock

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Season 1
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 4 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 0 out of 4
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Critic Reviews

  1. Collider
    Reviewed by: Allison Keene
    Mar 26, 2018
    40
    One Strange Rock ultimately has an identity crisis in what it wants to cover and how, and it ends up as a mishmash of stories, scripted vignettes, aerial footage, and conjecture.

User Reviews

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User Score
5.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 2 out of 7
  1. IcyBlue
    Feb 8, 2019
    2
    ADHD style documentary film making. Right when you might be about to learn something they change the subject. Every couple of minutes theADHD style documentary film making. Right when you might be about to learn something they change the subject. Every couple of minutes the locale changes and it's a great tragedy because you are never allowed to take in the atmosphere. There is a profound lack of respect for the viewer. Will Smith should stick to trashy action flicks. He and his production company butcher what could have been an interesting series.… Full Review »
  2. Bertaut1
    Apr 23, 2019
    8
    Does what it aims to do

    Executive produced by Darren Aronofsky, and made by Will Smith's production company (Smith is also the presenter),    Does what it aims to do

    Executive produced by Darren Aronofsky, and made by Will Smith's production company (Smith is also the presenter), One Strange Rock is essentially about the experiences of eight astronauts, and how their time in space led them to see Earth with new eyes. That, in turn, is used as a jumping off point to examine several different branches of Earth Science, with each episode focusing on a specific astronaut and dealing with a specific topic; the planet's respiratory system, the Theia Impact theory, how the planet protects us from the sun, the origin of life, the Permian-Triassic Extinction, the possibility of colonising another planet, how life has both transformed the Earth and been transformed by it, the evolution from single celled microbes to complex organisms, the development of the human brain, and the concept of Earth as home.

    Along the way, the show throws up a litany of hard to believe facts. To give just a sampling; the Amazon produces twenty times more oxygen than all of humanity could use, but none of it leaves the Amazon Basin, as it is used by the animals living there; the magnetic field generated by the planet's core stretches for 400,000 miles into space in every direction; every strand of DNA in the world contains billions of carbon atoms to bind it together; the human body has 37 trillion cells (more than the stars in the galaxy); tropical islands are composed of up to 70% parrot fish excrement; photosynthesis generates 100 terawatts of energy per year, six times more than humanity could use; the human brain is the most complex object in the known universe; 95% of all animals that have ever existed are extinct. Easily my favourite take from the show, however, is that it's 250,000 miles to the moon, 700 million miles to Saturn, 9 trillion miles to the edge of the solar system, 24 trillion miles to the nearest star (with our current technology, it would take 17,000 years to get there), and 25,000 light years (150,000 trillion miles) to the edge of the galaxy. That's a whole lotta miles!

    Very enjoyable stuff. My one complaint would be that most of the episodes feel a little padded, with each one containing two or three diversionary stories only tangentially related to the core theme. But it's still well worth watching; terrific visuals, great sound, experts who know what they're talking about, and mind blowing information, if the goal was to make the viewer look at Earth in a new manner, they certainly succeeded with me.    … Full Review »
  3. CCHBBH
    Feb 11, 2019
    4
    I love nature and science shows so much. However, I was extremely disappointed in how slanted the show is towards the theory of evolution. II love nature and science shows so much. However, I was extremely disappointed in how slanted the show is towards the theory of evolution. I don't understand how anyone can look at the perfect home we live on and think that it was just luck that it happened. I mean was it just luck that you have some trees made perfectly squared off and metal shaped perfectly to a point so that you could then by chance have those things mix together and then by luck have a perfectly shaped house. Ummmm...No. Someone designed it to be that way. I know without a doubt that the earth also has a designer. Nothing is the way it is by chance! That is truly offensive and narrow-minded to think that way. I cannot give this a higher score because of such a slanted scope.… Full Review »
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