Chris ultimately proclaims that this documentary was "nothing special, really, just the usual archival footage and talking heads" and that "From a distance, superficially, the show and "Mr. Rogers" seemed, to this viewer - who never saw more than a few moments before changing channels - to be namby-pamby, goody-goody, slow, silly, and rather effete." Yet at the same time, Chris admits that "But it for me packs a quiet wallop because it makes you think. The sheer goodness of the man brings a lump to the throat."


As an older child, I watched a few of Mr. Roger's episode with interest and apparently for much longer than Chris did. It's hard to reconcile Chris's description of these children's episodes with "namby-pamby, and good-goody" while Chris also describes how Mr. Rogers took "on subjects that could be baffling and frightening to them (children), such as death, divorce, and assassination, and demystified them in a few simple heartfelt words." In some mysterious way, Chris has offered up a commentary that is a documentary of this documentary with his great ability to condense with spot-on reporting about this movie while at the same time describing this documentary in also oddly two parallel judgmental perspectives. Chris takes his time to emphasis how Mr. Roger's use of silence, prolonged time was rather special while also complaining about how "slow" the series felt when examined from a distance and superficially.


Yet what movie critics normally do is not examine a movie from a distance nor superficially. Surprisingly with all the vast experience that Chris has accumulated Chris appears to have forgotten that the use of "just the usual archival footage and talking heads" is a fundamental basis of most documentaries. What Chris seems to ignore is that it is the superlative editing and the flow by which a great documentary is made and which allows the viewer to experience "quite a wallop" instead of becoming wrapped up with all a problems that a bad or even mediocre documentary might create. In other words, Chris may have allowed his "just a few minutes" experiences watching Mr. Rogers become that superficial observations to diminish my own longer exposure perspective to Mr. Rogers series as a child which leads me to realize just how good this documentary truly is.