Few documentaries have managed to capture the intensity, horror, and confusion which that day brought. Its details are immensely documented and as each harrowing scene unfolds on live tv, camcorders, and on the street, few series have achieved the hopelessness that this one from National Geographic. Few stories have been retold in such a comprehensive, compact, and emotional manner.

With eyewitness retelling their experience of, some through a camcorder, it’s easy to understand what happened that morning and what it, in the end, came to be. The sorrow and the shocking result of which it gave, lines up through the storytelling, emerging through every frame. The interview subjects retell powerful stories, which is hard to find these powerful experiences. They’re survivors of unbelievable situations that they get out of and how these firefighters, police officers, and civilians help each other from this situation.

They are detailed and articulate every detail necessary to tell the story. In this series, it’s obvious that the witness is the guiding part of the story where it uses archives, stock footage, and talking heads. There are a few bits with those are recognized from other programs that return in this series as well. It doesn’t leave me unaffected.  It’s hard to believe the images, that those terrorists did it, but the series tells an unprecedented truth that some will probably never understand. The editing of the footage sways around and is occasionally rough cut but it works. This is visible with the latter episodes depicting the aftermath of the attacks of the two towers. It’s not a big issue but it is a noticeable editing problem that looms the more you think about it.

This series is without a question the best series to date depicting and telling the experience several people had that day.