Sunday Afternoon Documentaries

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Gretch and I have had a subscription to Netflix for a few of years now. We started with free trials that we accessed through different debit and credit card accounts. After deciding we really did like using Netflix, we actually subscribed and have used it as our sole source of television programming. This has become a nice way to have background noise during the day when we are doing other things, a way to relax in the evening and watch shows together, to relive old memories as we share favourite programs, and a way to learn.

I'm not quite sure when it happened, but at some point Gretch decided that we should watch documentaries on Sundays after church. Through these programs, we have learned about the natural world, history, science, discoveries, architecture, design, and all sorts of other things. Some of the documentaries have been so grossly biased that we dropped them before finishing. Others were just awful, such as one about UFOs.

Today we started watching a documentary program that has been in our Netflix queue or list for several years: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil deGrasse Tyson. 



I know that Dr. deGrasse Tyson is something of a controversial figure among scientists. Some write him off as "pop scientist" and others feel that his lack of research calls into question his legitimacy. (According to his curriculum vitae, his last publication was in 2008 and was a part of a large group of researchers.) However, I have come to recognise the importance of having someone who can be a face for modern scientific research and a voice for scientific theories.

It has been fun watching this show and just learning about a bunch of random topics about the universe. Some of it has been stuff I knew before; some has been putting together bits and pieces of things that I hadn't quite understood in that way. And some has just been fun to think about and talk about with Gretch.

So that is how we spend our Sunday afternoons. Of course, we also read, nap, spend time with family and friends, and prepare meals. But the biggest part of our non-church Sunday routine on Sundays is definitely watching documentaries together. So, tell us, what do you do with your family on Sundays?

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