The National Parks: America's Best Idea

NewsdayVerne Gay

National Parks is magnificent--and maybe, just maybe, the best work ever produced by Burns.

Entertainment WeeklyKen Tucker

Ken Burns' 12-hour, six-part documentary, subtitled ''America's Best Idea,'' is a superb mixture of what you would expect (gorgeous scenery) and wouldn't (profiles of not only heroes and villains but also grand eccentrics).

San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman

It goes far and deep beyond some glossy travelogue of beautiful nature shots and gets into not only the politics of protection and conservation--of commemorating those who had the vision to see the abundant natural beauty in these 58 parks for what they were and what they would become to generations of Americans--and elevates to an almost Zen-like tribute the restorative qualities of the great outdoors.

Baltimore SunDavid Zurawik

Watch the first half hour tonight on PBS, and I bet you will become hooked on one of the best and most rewarding viewing experiences of the TV year.

Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara

Yes, here are those darn fiddles and the headshot interviews, here are the letters and journals read by Tom Hanks and John Lithgow, here are all those photographs and more information about the National Parks than you'll ever be able to retain. But his message from one documentary to another remains the same: Pay attention, take notes, listen to the people who were there at the time, because despite what you may have been taught, history is a gorgeously complicated thing.

Boston GlobeMark Feeney

Large chunks of the series are better than anything Burns has previously done, and that’s saying something.

Kansas City StarAaron Barnhart

The National Parks is a more ambitious and difficult work than his others, and it’s one that, I think, can lay claim to being his finest achievement to date.

Pittsburgh Post-GazetteDiana Nelson Jones

This gorgeous 12-hour series--a project that took six years to film--will air on public television at 8 p.m. on six consecutive nights.

TimeJames Poniewozik

If you're interested, I'd suggest checking out the first and second nights and then seeing where you want to go from there. Like the parks system itself, Parks is sprawling and often gorgeous. But don't feel obligated to collect every stamp.

New York Daily NewsDavid Hinckley

Burns creates a masterful historic document, a vivid portrait of the land set against the stories of those who worked to acquire it and then protect it against those who still would dismantle or compromise it. But the series, which runs through next Sunday, also plays like a video Ph.D. thesis.

Washington PostHank Stuever

It is beautiful and erudite and contains all the underlined importance and swelling emotion that a major Ken Burns moment requires of its viewers, but at least four cumulative hours of it are goshawfully boring.

The New York TimesMike Hale

Through its first four hours, at least, it’s full of fascinating history and larger-than-life characters....After those early years, though, the story loses some of its urgency and focus.

VarietyBrian Lowry

The bottom line, though, is that the subject matter could charitably have been chronicled in half the time. As a consequence, National Parks simply feels too imbued with itself--infused with a hard-to-escape sense of self-indulgence.

Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray

Unless you're immensely interested in every last detail about the development of the national park system from 1851 to 1980--or want to wind down before bedtime--you might be tempted to hit the mute button now and then.