Note: This article was originally published in Technician on September 28, 2006.
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'Discover Atlas' fascinating and balanced
Nothing seems too big for the Discovery Channel, not even the world. This Sunday, Discovery Communications will launch the first episode of Discovery Atlas, a new series that will reportedly last five years.
Billed as the network's most ambitious HD project to date, the 30-part project will provide a detailed profile of a new country every week. The series starts on a high note with Discovery Atlas: China Revealed, which focuses on the country likely to surpass the United States as a world superpower within the next 20 years.
Home to 1.3 billion people, to try and sum up China in two hours would be an impossible feat, but Discovery has managed to produce a respectable attempt. Rather than focusing solely on China as a whole or delving deep into cultural details, Discovery Atlas manages to find an appropriate line to walk between them. James Spader from Boston Legal narrates and provides all the statistics and facts one would expect from an educational program, yet the heart of the show lies in its examinations of various Chinese people from many different backgrounds and walks of life.