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Comment by topspin | Hacker News Reader

Just suffered through their Three Mile Island "documentary" yesterday while working on something else. Apparently Bechtel operates a hit squad in Pennsylvania and everyone in a 5 mile radius got severe cancer. Out of four hours you get about 10 minutes of meaningful detail about the incident; the rest is headline rehash you can get on the first page of a Google search, emotional personal stories and a lot of self promotion.

All the true crime stuff is retired officers cashing in. So much for books.

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> Out of four hours you get about 10 minutes of meaningful detail about the incident

Most documentaries have always been very low on information density. Even universally loved ones like something from David Attenborough are mostly a collection of disconnected (yet amazing) film snippets with a bit of commentary over the top. It's only gotten worse as narrative has become more of the focus.

There are exceptions, but when it comes to conveying meaningful information and detailed analysis youtube is far superior than mainstream documentaries.

Nature documentaries are a different beast from other documentaries. They are primarily about showing great nature footage. If you happen to learn something from it, that’s just a happy side effect.

>> Most documentaries have always been very low on information density.

Except everything done by the BBC. I am so sick of slow-paced american docs that inevitably swing into conspiracy rants and crying interviews. If there is a BBC doc availible on a subject, that is the one i will risk my hour of free time watching.

I too watched the 3 Mile Island netflix thing. The only fact i trust is the coincidence of The China Syndrome hitting theaters the week prior the accident, and only after i verified through imdb.

I want more historical documentaries like BBC's amazing The Death of Yugoslavia [1], a minute-by-minute breakdown of the collapse of Yugoslavia and subsequent civil war. It tackles a complex subject in a refreshingly dispassionate and informative way.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Yugoslavia

To be fair, they did interview a cartoon villain for balance.

There was no real attempt to compare the enormous toll of deaths and environmental damage of fossil fuels compared to nuclear. I kept thinking "did Shell commission this?".

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