This is not a slam-bam, action SciFi story like you might see in a present day movie. This is a highly interpersonal story whose events play out over just under 60 years. It centers on three families, which each span three to four generations, and the series is just under 15 hours. All that info is available on the IMDB home page for the series, but I repeat it here because there are a lot of reviewers who complain about there having been too much "interpersonal" screen time, and too little SciFi screen time. When you depict nearly 60 years of family lifetimes, there is going to be considerable screen time dedicated to the relationships of those people. Importantly, by and large, most of that interaction is related to the story being told, so I really don't understand those complaints. Bottom line, if you just want a hard-core, fast action SciFi, this isn't it. If you want to see a well written, extremely interesting story, with an alien abduction theme as its "core SciFi theme", it would be difficult to find something better than this series.
Alien abduction "news stories" aren't really seen as much as they used to be, but it's somewhat amazing how many books still show up every few years, which still purport to have new information about what happened in Roswell in 1947. My point being that aliens, and alien abductions are hardly a dead idea. What makes this series "that much better" than it might have been is the fact that many of the actual alien-related "events" that played a part in keeping the abduction story in the "real news", have been interwoven into in this story line.
As alluded to early, I would argue that the series is also highly re-watchable. I watched it when it was originally released, and bought the DVD set as soon as it was released. I pull it out every few years to enjoy it again (which led to this "20 years late" review). YES, it is a "standard definition" series, hence the DVDs. It was, however, shot wide (16x9). The filmed components still look pretty good, even on a large screen 4k set. The special effects look "decent" (and some better than decent), but obviously aren't as stunning as what you are used to seeing in 2022, but they suffice. Bottom line, don't let that deter you from giving the series a look, because it won't keep you from enjoying the story.
The big issue as of this writing is where to find the series on a streaming provider, and even that varies dependent upon what country you live in. As of this writing, the six DVD set is still available on Amazon, at what seems to be a reasonable price for ~15 hours of storytelling. (Don't hold your breathe for an HD version. It would require a complete re-do of all the special effects, and that would be enormously expensive.)
Alien abduction "news stories" aren't really seen as much as they used to be, but it's somewhat amazing how many books still show up every few years, which still purport to have new information about what happened in Roswell in 1947. My point being that aliens, and alien abductions are hardly a dead idea. What makes this series "that much better" than it might have been is the fact that many of the actual alien-related "events" that played a part in keeping the abduction story in the "real news", have been interwoven into in this story line.
As alluded to early, I would argue that the series is also highly re-watchable. I watched it when it was originally released, and bought the DVD set as soon as it was released. I pull it out every few years to enjoy it again (which led to this "20 years late" review). YES, it is a "standard definition" series, hence the DVDs. It was, however, shot wide (16x9). The filmed components still look pretty good, even on a large screen 4k set. The special effects look "decent" (and some better than decent), but obviously aren't as stunning as what you are used to seeing in 2022, but they suffice. Bottom line, don't let that deter you from giving the series a look, because it won't keep you from enjoying the story.
The big issue as of this writing is where to find the series on a streaming provider, and even that varies dependent upon what country you live in. As of this writing, the six DVD set is still available on Amazon, at what seems to be a reasonable price for ~15 hours of storytelling. (Don't hold your breathe for an HD version. It would require a complete re-do of all the special effects, and that would be enormously expensive.)