I think those of us that watched the original Cosmos have a different feel for the new series. It still holds my attention, but does lack something the original had. Maybe is was that the original was in a less techno time- today everything is available at an instant.
Am eager to see the remaining episodes and how they end the series. Possible science spin offs??
don"t forget the meteor shower tomorrow morning-- Tues.
The original was in a bit of a vacuum. There weren't many other similar shows on. You didn't have something like Internet forums where discussions popped up all over the place. And it presented things in a fairly new way.
Now you have a bunch of science shows going on (e.g., "Through the Wormhole"), there are Internet forums where geeks pop up and spout off knowledge every day, even (some of) the science fiction is smarter about cosmology, and there's a feeling of this being the same type of thing as the others, just with a bit different focus.
But I still remember the original Cosmos with Sagan pretty vividly, and I still think this matches up well. I think Neil is as personable as Carl - in some ways, kinda more so - and I like how they're taking more obscure figures in science history and showing their importance, and often how ahead of their time that they were, in the acquisition of knowledge. I don't think that within its particular environment it's better than the original. That would be a very tough call indeed, because the original was superb. But with the exception of an episode or two, it does a really good job for me, an aficionado of the first one.