Saw this last night on Showtime and thought I'd post here to compare notes with other members. Personally, it's always nice to see the band on TV... kind of reminds me that they are "real" instead of being some Calvin and Hobbes imaginary plaything that only I perceive as being alive, which is how I feel when I can only see them by dragging out my old DVDs. I assume I'm not alone in this, but mostly I was tired of hearing the same story being told yet again, even though I suppose one or two odd anecdotes or observations were thrown in that might have only been revealed in Chapter And Verse up to now. The real surprise, or really *shock* to me, was finally seeing the Roundhouse footage. I haven't been actively trading in a long time, so maybe it's out there in its entirety, but I had never laid eyes on it before. I've been meaning to visit the Torrents sections again for quite a while, so I'll have to look for that first when I get around to it.

One thing that did seem odd was that they started out showing each album in chronological order, complete with release dates and chart position where applicable. I can only hope it won't be this way on the Blu-ray release, but why was Wind & Wuthering missing? If you're only going to show SOME of the albums, why include all the release dates and chart data? Even worse was the complete omission of Calling All Stations in any way at all. Of course when you think about the reality of the situation, I don't think Ray Wilson would have been very nice about his time with the band, since his dismissal wasn't handled well at all apparently. He might not have agreed to appear in the documentary at all, and I don't think the others discussing it without him would have been received very well, either. I was a bit uncomfortable with the tense moment between Steve and the rest of the band when discussing his solo material, but Tony's mea culpa and especially Pete's gesture lightened the mood considerably. That could certainly explain why more time wasn't spent on Steve's solo career, although it would be nice to get more on the Blu-ray. They didn't show anything about Ant's solo stuff either, and with limited time you really need to find some sort of focus. The only downside of that is that personally, I've heard all about Phil's solo career... obviously the fact that he, Mike and Tony all had that outlet and could still come back to the band is the crux of what "Together And Apart" is all about, so I guess I can forgive that.

I guess my biggest takeaway from the documentary, like many before it, is that I'm wondering when some of this material will be released in the kind of quality we see in the documentary. Back when I first saw "A History", I never thought I'd eventually own full-length versions of all the clips shown, but thanks to the various DVD trading groups I have. Then came the boxed sets, and even though the material wasn't always quite up to what I had on DVD-R and in some cases not exactly complete, it was nice to have rare Genesis footage on factory-made DVDs. Now I wonder when we'll start seeing some of this stuff released in HD on Blu-ray. I'm hoping that at least some of it will be included on the Blu-ray release of the documentary, but it would be a travesty if they zoomed and cropped it for widescreen like they did within the doc itself. I also noticed there was Flaming Youth footage I hadn't seen, so that would be interesting to have as well. It looked like a lot of the films most of us have on DVD-R somewhere or on the official bonus DVDs exist in HD-ready form, so who knows what kind of official releases we could see in the near future. I just hope my budget can take it. I did see online that Three Sides Live is getting released on Blu-ray, and it's also getting a standalone DVD release, so I'm pretty sure it's not just those audio-only releases I posted about a while back.

So... what are everyone else's thoughts on the documentary? If anyone buys the Blu-ray before I have a chance to, I'd love to know whether it contains a longer, more complete cut, "deleted scenes" or bonus material. Also, what do you think about the possibility of getting some of our favorite bootleg footage in HD? Do you think it will happen, or has some of it already leaked out? Again, I haven't visited Torrents in a long time, so I don't even know what's out there anymore.

You've summed it all up pretty well there, dvdgenesis!
I'm intrigued about the Roundhouse footage - do the band (or the BBC?) have the whole thing? Someone posted some clips on YouTube some time ago, but I'd be really pleased to see the rest of it!
Everyone has noted the moment when the air turned to ice when Steve spoke up about why he left, and Phil, Mike and Tony just stared....
The thing I really liked about the documentary was to see Phil happy and joking! Most interviews in the last few years have shown him very defensive, negative and depressed. This time he was like the old Phil!

Where did the Supper's Ready footage come from? I don't remember ever seeing that film before, with Peter in the silver costume.

I think it was less instructive in that format, you could tell they weren't comfortable and were talking over one another. I missed the whole comment about Tony's guitar playing at the beginning of suppers ready. I like Steve Hackettt's playing and can understand his frustration, but why would they give editorial control to a guy who left the band over 30 years ago. Pete has even more damning things to say about the band at the time of his departure, but knew that this wasn't reallly the time or the place. The way Steve left was kind of crummy, although his frustrations were certainly valid, but you'd think he'd have gotten all that out on the album interviews years ago. Really there wasn't much else the other guys could do but stare. Phil also didn't talk about when he left, some things need the right time and place.