Suzuki, a noted Canadian biologist and author, begins with a primer on every creature’s genetic blueprint: the DNA molecule. Though he lays on some gee-whizzy garnish (“If I could unravel all the DNA in my body, it would reach to the sun and back over a hundred times”), this is heavy slogging. Things perk up considerably, however, once we’re into the meat of the course. The series covers how genes determine gender, health, aging and perhaps behavior, the wonders of genetic engineering and therapy, and the moral dilemmas all this gene-tinkering presents.
Having cracked DNA’s instructional code, researchers are now beginning to rewrite it–basically by replacing bad genes with good ones. But the program’s most effective segments tell the human stories behind the experiments. The parents of a boy afflicted with cystic fibrosis hear that the discovery of the gene for the disease may spare him an agonizing death. Twin brothers–one with AIDS, one without–wait to learn if immune cells from the healthy sibling can cure the infected one. A nursery-school teacher who may have inherited the fatal gene that gave her mother Alzheimer’s confronts a terrible choice. A new test could settle the question, but there’s still no cure. Which would you pick: certainty or hope?
“The Secret of Life” lacks the spectacular effects of “Cosmos” and “Life on Earth.” It relies on so many cellular slide shows that viewers may feel trapped under an electron microscope. Still, producer Graham Chedd livens things up with sprightly animation as well as clips from sci-fi classics (the most eerily prescient: 1966’s “Fantastic Voyage”). And unlike much of its ilk, the show’s writing is mercifully free of we-stand-on-the-threshold bromides. As for the best, the bearish, bearded Suzuki, who looks like a Japanese Leo Buscaglia, is amiably unpretentious. He also uses his own life to make points. His internment and that of his Japanese-Canadian family during World War II taught him about genetic incorrectness, while, he candidly admits, a youthful “obsession” with having “large, round European eyes” introduced him to the genetic inferiority complex.
In the end, this series is about questions–scientifically designed to get under our chromosomes. Will the demand for perfect designer genes destroy the diversity of the human species? Suppose our personal genetic profiles–with all their flaws–end up in the hands of employers, insurers or repressive governments? And how can we be masters of our fates if, as the series suggests, our genes decide whether we’ll be a cop or a criminal, whom we’ll marry and vote for, even how fast we’ll finish this article?
Unsettling science. Superb television.
