Megacities

Scottish-born BBC reporter Andrew Marr profiles several of the world's biggest cities—Shanghai, Dhaka, London, Tokyo, and Mexico City, each of which support populations in the tens of millions and growing. Collectively, these metropolises represent a planet-changing event: the migration of the majority of humanity from the countryside to sprawling urban centers, which range from relatively prosperous, forward-looking places like Shanghai (home to 7,000 billionaires—counted in yen) to poverty-ridden cities such as Bangladesh's Dhaka. The megalopolises that Marr explores in this three-episode series are sometimes breathtaking, sometimes nightmarish, but never boring. Marr spends a night in the mosquito-infested but surprisingly functional slum-shanties of Dhaka and says he'd prefer those dwellings over the sterile glass high-rise cells that house many inhabitants of Tokyo (population: roughly 35 million). The locales are evaluated on the basis of disaster preparedness and policing (such as in crime-ridden Mexico City), food sources and sanitation (Marr checks out a ghastly hole into which London restaurants' cooking fat is poured), and transportation (Dhaka's human-powered rickshaws might actually offer a lesson in homey sustainability). The host's affable style makes the formidable amount of information presented here easier to digest. DVD extras include a 12-page viewer's guide and a text bio of Marr. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)