Mankind: The Story of All of Us

Of all the epic History serials I've seen so far, I liked this one the least. It is a daunting task to retell the entire history of human civilization, but a lot of the potential is destroyed through a very unsympathetic presentation.

It begins with the tediously dramatic narrator, who puts so much emphasis on every single sentence that before long you wish you could tune him out. It doesn't help that most sentences are kept extremely short, which is at first irritating, then starts to feel condescending. You'll wish the narrator back, though, once you start to meet the interviewees featured. Not only are many of them completely absurd picks for the topics at hand (a Navy SEAL? A writer? A news anchor?), but a couple of them are downright annoying to watch and listen to. They couldn't find any historians, archaeologists or anthropologists who could give well-founded information—without all the theatrics?

The parts I disliked the least are, surprisingly, those I usually hate most in documentaries: the CGI scenes and reenactments. The reenactments work remarkably well because they're not overstated and, funnily, not overly dramatized. At least their pathos fades in comparison to that of the narrator and "experts". While reenactments usually feel like a very cheap and childish part of a serious documentary, those in Mankind were not at all bad. Similarly for the CGI scenes, which somehow seemed way less cheesy than the usual fare. They're allowed to be dramatic, and there's a few ridiculous ones, like for instance the Sphinx at the end of the first part, but overall they knew their place and were pretty well done.

The story is, no doubt, a fascinating one. What might be a matter of personal preference is that I felt the series spent too much time on the latter stages. I would have preferred the final 4 parts compressed into 2, leaving more room for detail in the earlier chapters. But all in all, if you're not just looking for the next History box-set but have an actual interest in the topic, and considering that this 9-hour behemoth is a considerable time investment, there are many better alternatives out there.

Not everything is correct and the fact about history is some of it is based on opinions which obviously will have bias. It's very entertaining that covers a lot. It's heavily US biased which is expected when watching that is US produced

It was very enjoyable to watch.

I always had a weakness for this kind of documentaries, I liked it very much.

I see all the reviews which criticize this series. If you are looking for hard core, detailed documentaries you probably should have abandoned the history channel about 10 years ago. As a vehicle to spark the interest high-school kids and provide images and concepts for discussion, this series has worked very well in my classroom. Biases and inaccuracies serve as the seeds for deeper dialogue about cultural perspectives and historicity. Indeed, the reputations of some of the talking heads have evolved over the years. It's colorful, its loud, and it keeps the kids' attention better than the stuff that came before.

I concede that there are better series out there for serious folks who like a deeper dive.

I did enjoy watching an episode of "Mankind: The Story of All of Us" titled "The Invention of Gunpowder". It allowed me to learn more about what we had previously learned about in AP World History class. While it was a lot of repetition of the same information we have been learning, it was personally helpful for me to see it demonstrated/explained in a different way. Watching something instead of just hearing/reading about it, allowed me to make more connections that "stick" in my brain better. So, I believe that this activity would be beneficial to an AP World History student because it gives more insight about the invention and importance of gunpowder.