HispanicBusiness

America's finest documentary filmmaker has done it again. In a far less harrowing adventure than his last project on World War II, Ken Burns is now leading American's on a walk through the park—the national parks, to be exact.

Airing a new episode every night this week on PBS, this is must-see tv for stressed-out Americans suffering from what has been referred to as nature deficit disorder—a real alienation from our natural world. Burns' latest effort is almost as good as being there, with the pounding waterfalls; the remarkable sight of a gaggle of grizzlies fishing for—and catching—paws-ful of salmon in a raging river; the primal creation of new land, as a Hawaiian volcano pours lava into the sea.

But the mesmerizing tales told by Burns go far beyond a travelogue of pretty pictures. They include instances of greed and attempts to exploit the land; noble attempts to do better, sometimes even heeding the voice in the wilderness counseling for wise use and preservation.

Through the words of shameless promoter J.M. Hastings and sometimes-purple prose of John Muir; on-camera appearances by the Sierra Club's Carl Pope, African-American park ranger Shelton Johnson, native American park superintendent Gerard Baker, and commentary by writers Gretel Ehrlich and Terry Tempest Williams, and historian and collaborator Dayton Duncan, Burns' first installment of the six-part series tells a mesmerizing episode of Americana that compels the viewer to tune in for the rest of the story as it plays out through the week.