Explained: Netflix Documentary Review

The Netflix documentary Explained, produced in collaboration with Vox and Netflix. The show goes in depth about modern issues and some random topics that can really spark a conversation. In the episode “Music” Vox explains the whole meaning of what music means in our society and how it came to be such a prominent part of our cultures, they also make an argument that without music humans wouldn’t be who they are today.

Of course, music was such a good topic for Vox to choose, music has been so heavily involved in so many cultures around the world.

Some experts say that music is such a huge part in human communication and is so deeply rooted into our minds and we don’t even realize it sometimes. Vox is making the argument that without music humans wouldn’t be where we are today.

Vox does a great job using Ethos by having special guests who are very credible in both the music, scientific, medical, and neurological world. When Vox introduces guests, they place a lower thirds title card explaining who the guest is and what they do for a living, they introduce the guest and give the audience a brief explanation on what that individual has done and why the audience should trust that person. To add on to the Ethos in the documentary Vox already has plenty of credibility to the documentary. This documentary is also very professionally produced, the way it was edited and shot adds to the professionalism of the piece as a whole. In the documentary Vox goes into great depth with the experts on the topic of Music, most of the experts say that humans are some of the only animals on the planet that have the ability to “feel” a beat and distinguish between pitches and pick out a melody in a song. Most say this ability dates all the way back to when cave paintings were our primary way of communicating with each other.

Logos is very present in this documentary as well, Vox adds so many supporting facts and ideas that just truly add to the legitimacy of the documentary as a whole. They tend to pull facts out of prestigious research papers that support their claim of music being so involved in our lives since the beginning of the modern human. Vox presents facts like humans being the only animals to really and truly understand music as a whole. The logos in the documentary is natural very strong because of the nature of documentaries. Although Vox doesn’t seem to overdo it with dumping facts on you, they will let some things sink in and give you time to really think about what is going on in the film.

In explained Vox uses a touch of ethos to give the viewer an idea of what life would be like without music, they bring on a special guest who has lost the ability to understand music. They ask her what life is like without music, and she says that she didn’t enjoy things as much as she used to and that she had to really change her whole way of life just to get around the fact that she can’t understand music. This is a very emotional story because she literally had to change the way she lived because she lost the ability to understand music. When you listen to her story you can’t help but imagine how you would react if you lost the ability to listen to music.

Overall Vox does a great job in their episode called “Music” in explaining why music is so important to us in our everyday lives and how it helped the human species evolve and develop different ways of communicating to each other. This episode certainly sparks a conversation on what music means to our society as a whole and how we can’t live without it. Vox uses Ethos, Logos, and Pathos flawlessly in order to convey the argument they are making, and that is what truly makes a great documentary. 

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