Origins: The Journey of Humankind

◦ An overacted and melodramatic series of speculations, conjectures, dramatizations, & fictional speculations woven into a 'story' of key elements of mankind's progress: i.e., fire, cooking, gunpowder.

◦ The narrator, Jason Silva, presents dialogue with overacted caffeinated gusto, using a repetitious series of stiff, wooden gestures reminiscent of President George Bush. The format and style of the show is so amateurish that it made me wonder if the target audience was elementary or junior high. LCD in High-Def.

The show may have shown promise but that presenter is the worst I've ever seen...he's obviously off his meds...wildly gesticulating, even doing some old disco dance steps at one point...and such an annoying spoken presence that so distracted from the content that I gave up after only 20 minutes.

Was so psyched to see this. Such an interesting subject matter but the way this is presented with reality TV style commentary and cringe worthy dramatizaions, ruins what could have been a very interesting and educational series. Why oh why did you have to make it in this format? Such a waste. This is definitely for the "American Idol" audience. Going to have to look elsewhere to find some mentally provocative programming. Seems this is the way Nat Geo is going now.

Hyper, electronic/industrial melodramatic soundtrack, lots of flashy CGI with rotating/panning camera work, cinematically contrived, fast-paced cut scenes. It's a documentary with ADD.

The host/narrator, Jason Silva, is absolutely the worst I have ever seen/heard. Is he high on coke? it's jarring--I can't stand his overly emphatic speech mannerisms. The tone has a quality of being very condescending/patronizing, as if he needs to make you understand just how important everything he says is. He needs to see how to convey the sense of wonder in presenting knowledge--maybe watch Carl Sagan, James Burke, David Attenborough, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and many other successful narrators. It's also hard to "connect" with the narrator when the stupid camera constantly breaks eye contact with the narrator with off-angle camera work.

Material itself is fine, in my opinion. Yes, it over-dramatizes too many minor points with lots of hyperbole, but I get that it's an interpretive work. It has educational value. Just hit the mute button when Silva appears and lower the volume a bit for the rest of the show. I tried watching that way and found that I missed nothing, confirming that he adds nothing to the presentation of the material. My blood pressure and stress levels came down, and was able to enjoy the show.

For all you detractors of this series, I think your missing the point. There are probably thousands of us who had no idea of what our actual history is. So you don't like the presenter and there were probably some inventions that weren't included, but there was plenty of information for those of us who didn't know. I'm a senior with just a high school education and this series, including Jason Silva, kept me watching and even his repeated things made me listen more closely. It seems to me that even a simple person would learn from this series. Very educational.