mingsphinx

This gets a two because the first two episodes were good. After that, it became a whole lot of nothing. Which is more than frustrating because you just keep waiting for the story to come together but it never does. Production value also fell as the episodes progressed. You can actually feel the actors, the crew and the post-production team lose interest as the series moved tiresomely to the next episode. This being a HBO production it never actually looked shabby, but the last episode felt like it was something of an after thought.

How many of us can remain 'sane' when confronted with proof of otherworldly beings? Do you really just go back to that suburban life of tending the garden and backyard barbecues? This is my biggest peeve with this miniseries. If there is any evidence of a supernatural occurrence, would that not be far more important than pursuing whatever crime, however heinous it maybe? And having discovered this mind blowing, earth shattering truth, why would disparate individuals work as a group to cover it up?

There could have been a story here but the people at HBO have lost their mojo. Success dulls the edge and it seems that they can no longer cut it.

It can be a little boring at times but if you stay with the series and see for yourself the promise of gene therapy, you will understand why public understanding of this technology is so urgently needed. Once people grasp how potent gene editing is, they are going to want it more than they would anything else. The problem is that none of us know what the consequences will be when gene therapies become widely used and accepted.

It might be one of the consequential documentaries made in recent years because Unnatural Selection chronicles the rise of the gene editing revolution. Years from now people will look back (with regret I think) at the cowboy recklessness that unleashed disaster upon the world. Changing the DNA of any organism that can reproduce could have profound implications for the world we live in, not always for the better. But if you are a biohacker, to you the world we live in is already not only unsustainable but also in deep crisis. So to them there is no reason not to try something new, even if it may have potentially catastrophic consequences, to try and make the world a better place.

That sense of grasping at a possible utopia from a paradise that has fallen seem to underlie the motivations of many of the people who were profiled. And therein lies the danger for all of us because they believe that they can make the world a better place and are willing to force the rest of us to go along with or without our consent. It is also worthwhile to look at the ignorance of some of these people and their undisguised greed for life and wealth to see why the gene editing movement is not likely to end well for all of us.

Even in German with subtitles the show felt like it was tailored specifically for an American audience. The central characters, all teenage high school kids, behaved like Americans who happen to be fluent in German. That said it is not a bad series but I wanted the show to have more German texture and flavor.