Watch out, you might learn something

I’m currently watching a new series on Discovery called “We Built This City.” What’s so marvelous about it is that it uses sophisticated and beautiful computer graphics to enlighten rather than dazzle. An image of New Amsterdam seamlessly flows into an image of modern-day New York; footage of skyscrapers in water shows the extent of reclaimed land on the island; and a seamless camera move from bottom to top shows the techniques used to landfill the area. It’s a perfect example of making complex concepts easy to understand visually, the kind of thing that I aspire to almost every day.