I'll just come out and say it right off the bat - Forgotten Planet 3D was one of the best broadcast 3D TV shows that I have watched to date.  Although the content is fairly depressing (describing how two of our world's cities became ghost towns), the show was very well done both from a content, direction and 3D perspective.

Content Review

Forgotten Planet 3D tells the story of how Pripyat, Ukraine and Picher, Oklahoma, both thriving cities at one point, became dead and abandoned as a result of major human blunders.   The first half hour focuses on Pripyat, while the second half documents Pricher.

Pripyat was a planned community for workers at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. When nuclear reactor #4 exploded in April 1986, Pripyat became a ghost town within a week. The documentary, interviews and images depict how bad the destruction was and even is today.

Picher was the largetst producer of lead and zinc in the world during World War I & II. The intense mining and resulting 'chat' piles (gravel residue with tiny lead and zinc particles) eventually made the area completely uninhabitable.

The topic is certainly not uplifting, but very educational and interesting to watch.  It was easy to follow and didn't get too technical, but gave enough information that you understood the reasons for the cities' collapses.  There was nothing in it that wasn't appropriate for children, although there are some scenes with people with radiation poisoning that are a bit jarring.

Use and Quality of 3D

This program was clearly made better by the use of 3D in many ways.  The 3D really 'popped' out of the screen for many of the shots, especially during the Pipyat piece.  The images were crisp and the background images were all clearly in focus.  Broken windows and open doors showed the depth of the scenes very well.

They've included footage from around the time of the incident itself, but rather than just instead playing it full screen they incorporated it into the current footage, which was very cool.  For instance, there was a shot of the inside corner a building with two big holes where windows used to be.  The old video was shown inside one of the windows so that it appeared as though the action was happening outside that window, while the other window just showed the current background images.  

Another very creative 3D shot was a large, open room again with windows missing that had a table with an old metal frame of a TV sitting on it.   As they zoomed in on the TV, the old footage appeared as if it was an old TV show.

Bottom Line:

Forgotten Planet 3D is definitely worth watching.  It will give you a great idea of how 3D can be used to enhance a TV show.  The content is obviously not uplifting, but certainly interesting.  I wouldn't advise watching it while on a date, but surely worth watching any other time.

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