Wonders of the Universe (Season 1)

Wonders of the Universe (2011) is a BBC documentary series you can watch online on iFILM — four episodes in which physicist Professor Brian Cox uses fundamental laws of physics to tell the story of the universe rather than run through a timeline of discoveries.

Each episode takes one principle — thermodynamics, gravity, the electromagnetic spectrum, the nature of time — and traces it across 13.7 billion years of cosmic history. Cox films on location rather than in a studio: Himalayan glaciers, Bolivian salt flats, Egyptian deserts, the banks of the Ganges. The sequel to his 2010 series Wonders of the Solar System, this one widens the frame to the entire cosmos. What sets it apart is the pacing: Cox gives each idea room to breathe, and by the end the scale of what he's describing lands as a feeling, not just a number. Stream Wonders of the Universe online on iFILM.