I really enjoyed the space animations. I particularly liked, in the last ep, the simple shot showing where Sol would be relative to Voyagers 1 & 2, in a billion years. (Or was it 10 billion? Whatever; I won’t be around!)
I also really enjoyed the history of science stuff, but I’m that kind of nerd. And while I know a fair bit of HoS, they covered a fair amount that I didn’t know.
I watched it on TWC on-demand, and was able to fast-forward through the commercials.
I watched the first one and while it was good, it just didn’t have the “teeth” of Sagan’s. Maybe I am too much of a Sagan fangirl but DeGrasse Tyson is a fabulous man, a great speaker but he lacked the passion that Sagan put into his program. I just kept waiting fro Tyson to throw off his reserve and run around excited.
I loved the old Cosmos and I loved the new Cosmos. I understand the criticisms, but on balance, it was still the best thing on TV in recent memory. I normally don’t even have cable TV, but they offered me free basic service for a year awhile back, and I accepted it so I could watch Cosmos. Now I’ll cancel it again.
BBC Horizon, and Dozens of other shows from the BBC are available in several formats including some on youtube.
Personally I loved the new Cosmos.
I would stick with it if that is what you are looking for.