SnoopyStyle This is a National Geographic series about everything human and our world. It's a big subject. It's too big. The show is noise and fury without enough enlightenment. There are eight episodes. Each one tackles such a big part of human existence that it can't possibly cover them in one hour episodes. The show has a cast of educated presenters and host Jason Silva. Most of it is a series of reenactments, talking heads, and always the fast-cutting flashy connective sequences.There are some issues with accuracy. It's problematic because one expects better from National Geographic. Did we really discover fire in 12,000 BC? Despite the importance of accuracy, the biggest problem is the show's scattered disjointed way of tackling each issue. It feels like the host Jason Silva is attacking me with his wild hand gestures and words. He's looking directly into the camera and barking at me. The flashy jolting presentation doesn't allow anything to sink in. The show jumps from one place and time to another and then another and another. It's too disjointed for anything educational to sink into the audience. By the end of each episode, I could only remember bits of disconnected information which leaves me with no new insight or new understanding. Apparently, all of transportation leads to the discovery of Marilyn Monroe. I don't know why that's important. It might be worthwhile for dumb people with no concept of science or history. For an educated audience, this really only skims the vast history of man. With such a big subject matter, this show could never dig that deep.

musicreporter-1 Bad, over exaggerated, weak blather are only a few of the problems here. Everyone, including the over-caffenated host, just gush non- stop about the "discoveries" and "enlightenments" etc. Too much noise, too much cheer-leading, over gesturing, over- emphasis on all points, which only drive viewers away. Nat Geo- a good brand - is nowhere near the professionals on this subject - a total waste of time. Many of the gushing experts - including that young African American "authority", seem bent on over-exaggerating their points as if we're the idiots who are too slow to add a simple 2 plus 2. A major turn off. Sad, the series did have a good potential but you don't need to shout and over gesture to make a point. Trash bin time.

dieherreradiaz I was hoping for a good documentary that made different points of view and made key observations of how specific inventions of moments affected the overall human history, here we have a bit of that, the drama acts in between i welcomed at first. These acts helped to connect with these moments and give more context than just plain numbers or facts but later on the acts became way too long and took to much time from the actual documentary part of the show.Then my largest disappointment is the constant focus on USA. On the episode about architecture and transportation they dedicated at least 8 min of the show about women rights or racism in the US. I came to the show to watch a documentary about humankind i don't wanna see a story about issues in the US, its fine to mention them sure but 8-10 min just about how blacks got banned from the firsts urban areas ? no thanks,specially since after that segment they barely gave 3 min to show Arcuitecture in possible houses of space, arguably a much better topic for a episode for freaking architecture, not American civil rights history.

Bert45 For a science and history documentary series with an obviously huge budget, Origins: The Journey Of Humankind does just about everything it can to ruin itself. There is obviously some genuinely fascinating information in here but it has been drowned in Hollywood melodrama. With ridiculously over-the-top historical re-enactments, including silly and unconvincing "pre-historic" scenes, relentlessly pounding music all the way through, and Jason Silva wildly over-acting his three-camera presentation, this smacks of a production by people who think their audience is so dull and short on attention span that they need history explained to them as a sci-fi adventure movie. It doesn't inform as much as it irritates. What a waste of an opportunity to explore history.