James Burke : Connections³, Episode 1 : "Feedback" (HQ), 1 of 6

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Episode 1 James Burke's Connections³, which is the last (as far as I know!) installment in the Connections series.

In this series, Mr. Burke again takes a fresh approach in exploring main theme of all of these series; which is the way that progress occurs, almost exclusively by accident, and through various (often multi-disciplinary) "connections" between ideas or individuals. In this case, each episode begins where the last one left off and the whole series concludes with a surprise ending :) I won't give it away because that will spoil all the fun!

Again translating this series into a "K-web path", we can think of it as a set of explorations beginning from one starting point and ending up somewhere in the past, present (or possibly the future) and then left there for a later time (ie. School's out, and it's time to go home!). The next show is then a continuation of the journey through "connection space". See http://k-web.org for more information.

In a sense this series almost reads like a book with various twists and turns (and lots of surprises!), broken up into "chapters" where each chapter starts off where the last one ended.

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[DaveKovacs82]

This series made me sad. The great mind responsible for Connections and Day the Universe Changed sold out to TLC's demands for a high paced, ADD-produced, overly jokey series that looked more like saturday morning cartoons that a history documentary.

I hope some day JB will do one more serious series. He truly is brilliant.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

I got the same impression *at first* with Connections³, but after watching beyond the 3rd of 4th episode I thought that it improved tremendously.

Yes, there's lots of dry humour and slapstick, but just as often it's very subtle; not what I'd classify as "ADD-produced".

Try watching from say, episode 5 onwards and see what you think. I know a lot of it is just plain corny but I think those episodes are worth viewing for the more subtle/serious content interwoven with the "ADD content".

- JBW

[DaveKovacs82]

Oh Ive watched the whole series a couple of times. I also have the companion book THE KNOWLEDGE WEB. That was the problem, even with the book I couldn't follow the connections.

I first discovered J. Burke when I was in 7th grade. I read Connections and every Friday my history teacher let me summarize a chapter in a presentation for the class. The beautiful thing is that I COULD summarize a chapter in a way 7th graders (or anyone else) understood. That's also true of Connections 2.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Some of them are pretty tenuous I agree. And some are outright slight-of-hand. But I thnk what he's really trying to do with here is a kind of random walk connections path; a non-linear version where the connections are *meant to be* random things that tend to lead you astray in some random direction.

The fact that this random walk ends where it starts is a bit gimmicky, but I think he makes his point.: Everything is interconnected and it's never really obvious, until you reach the end, "how".

[sharpezor]

what is this bullshit

[BugsWisely]

Rabbits have to eat their own feces to stay healthy.

[MrBunnerabb]

@DaveKovacs82

I'm inclined to agree that the first series let the subject matter carry the show and much to their detriment, the later productions shifted this duty towards the bells, whistles and witticisms smattered about the show, instead.

Series one is, beyond a doubt, the best television ever produced.

[photogopher]

There is no doubt in my mind that this was/is my all time favorite program on PBS. It was so well done and set the standard for all those programs to follow in its footsteps.

The great thing about it is history doesn't change and it could be run again with some minor addendums or updates for new connections if they exist. Well done James!

[DaveKovacs82]

Ill concede there are times when it works. Connections 1 was very linear compared to this---one thing led to another, led to another. Connections 2 got a little "webbier" A caused B, B was really made possible by C, D and E, D happened because of F, which also caused G.  It takes more work.

But Connections 2 still made good sense at least 90% of the time.

This series had too many problems. Sometimes I honestly can't figure out what the connections are.

Its fun though.