Origins: The Journey of Humankind

Look, I don't disagree with all the negative points that others have raised: flagrant inaccuracies; glaring omissions; irritating narration; poor acting; too America- / Euro-centric; and a dumbed-down patronising style. Nevertheless, I watched Origins primarily in order to learn interesting new facts, and it did teach me quite a few: Kublai Khan's pioneering use of paper money (although the show is inaccurate - the Song Dynasty were the first to issue paper money, before the Mongols); the work of Nostradamus as a plague healer (although the show inaccurately portrays him as a proper doctor, which he wasn't); Tollense (Germany) as the world's oldest large-scale battlefield; Robert Koch's role as the founder.of microbiology; and El Castillo (Spain) as the home of the world's oldest known cave painting. Therefore, in my opinion, it's not a bad show.

Someone once said trying to do a "Connections" type series without James Burke would be like watching the disconnected ramblings of a lunatic. Ladies and gentlefolk, I give you "Origins."

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.

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.

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.