Semi-Live Blogging "This Emotional Life: Part 1"
Some of you know that last night PBS aired Part 1 of the documentary “This Emotional Life,” which is in three parts and will continue tonight and tomorrow on your local PBS affiliate. The series was apparently conceived by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (and co-produced by one of his many companies), who’s been long-fascinated by neuroscience and has rolled some of his own money into interesting research…in addition to a SciFi museum, a cool Rock ‘N Roll museum and a badass vintage airplane museum and tons of real estate in Seattle, some businesses, my Seattle Seahawks (who just finished an awful season and that makes me unhappy) and the Portland Trailblazers.
“This emotional life is a roller coaster,” begins the show’s narrator and that’s sort of the deal with Part 1–it’s a roller coaster. It focuses on families, friends and lovers and their epic importance in our lives. There’s plenty of narrative on attachment theory, kids screwed up because of bad attachments, children’s brains molded by love, and so on. Followed by a section on friends and a poor fellow named Jason who’s got Asperger’s and then a lengthy bit on bullying and by that point it was an hour into the show with an hour to go and I decided to bail. I wasn’t getting anything new or terrifically interesting. I’m a dork for psych stuff, so if it wasn’t intriguing me, then Part 1 had some problems.
I know one of the other parts is going to get into post-combat PTSD, a subject that deeply interests me, so I still have my hopes for the series. Allen, after all, doesn’t often bet wrong with his money. So we shall see if there’s a gem in there somewhere.
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