Human

BBC's documentary series "Human" attempts to chronicle the evolution and history of Homo sapiens but ultimately falls short of what could have been a definitive modern exploration of our species' journey. While the series touches on the major milestones of human evolution, it suffers from a frustratingly superficial treatment of its subject matter.

The series opens with the claim that humans are "the most dominant form of life on the planet". That immediately raised a red flag for me because bacteria certainly would take that title. This sets the tone for a series filled with sweeping generalizations that prioritize dramatic statements over accuracy.

The documentary style employed here feels dated and reminiscent of a documentary style formula that BBC has been using for at least two decades. While this approach can work when backed by substantial content, "Human" lacks the depth and detail that would justify its conventional presentation. Most disappointingly, the series fails to capitalize on recent scientific discoveries from the past few years, particularly in the realms of DNA analysis. For a subject that has seen significant advances through genetic research, this omission feels like a major oversight.

The presenter's delivery, characterized by slow pacing and generic platitudes, becomes grating over time. However, this seems less a personal failing of the presenter and more a symptom of poor direction and production choices. The series is plagued by vague, redundant information that makes following the timeline confusing rather than illuminating.

One of the most glaring oversights is the series' treatment of Africa. While much attention is given to Homo sapiens' journey out of Africa, there's virtually no exploration of migrations within the continent itself over the last 200,000 years. Africa is 30 million square kilometers and home to over 1.5 billion people today yet intra-African migration of homo sapiens is always ignored in these documentaries. The documentary jumps haphazardly between East Africa and southern Africa without acknowledging the vast geographical and historical complexity of human movement within Africa. This view of human migration feels particularly outdated in 2025.

The handling of specific topics like Denisovans exemplifies the series' problems. Rather than delving into the fascinating details of Denisovan and Homo Sapien/Neanderthal interactions or their genetic legacy in modern populations, the documentary reduces them yet again to simplistic "hobbit" comparisons.

For viewers with no prior knowledge of human evolution, "Human" might serve as a basic primer. However, for those seeking substantive information or updates on recent discoveries, the series is a disappointment. Given the BBC's resources and reputation for quality documentaries, this feels like a significant missed opportunity. The subject of human evolution deserves better than this surface level treatment, it needs producers and directors willing to trust their audience with complexity and nuance rather than settling for oversimplified narratives.

This series is a triumph of style over substance, which is to say that it's pretty poor.

Long drawn out scenes, backed with dramatic musical accompaniment, appear designed to emphasise the importance of the subject, but actually do the opposite by detracting from it. Ella Al-Shamahi's commentary is slow and boring. Clearly she is fascinated by her subject, but as a presenter she lacks any of the necessary charisma. It seems that she may be trying to copy the delivery of David Attenborough but, if this is the case, she's a dismal failure. The quite irrelevant background noise adds nothing and is wholly out of place in what claims to be a scientific series. Scenes of the presenter standing in a desert or walking through forests are equally irrelevant.

The substance of the series could easily have been covered in no more than 2 episodes; 5 is simply far too many. Having sat through the first 2, I find myself bored and falling asleep. There is undoubtedly a lot of very good science buried in the series, but that's the problem. It's buried in a vast load of overly dramatic nonsense. Whether this Is the fault of the writers, presenter, director or producer is unknown, but whoever is at fault needs to take a few lessons in how to create a first class science documentary.

Okay Ella Al-Shamahi is not new to this kind of documentary - she's done a few series for the BBC since 2018.

Wat strikes me with "Human" is the dramatic repetitions. I get it, we need to fill five episodes and there is only so much to tell.

Paleoarcheology is making headway, pushed forward by recent finds. The theory, like the early humans, evolves into more refined ideas. It still remains mostly speculation and interpretation though.

The images are pleasing. Lots of shots of African "primitive" tribes as it looks. The landscape is very much connected with the story so we get to see a lot of it and it is spectacular.

It's not bad at all. Just one thing: the overly dramatic writing. At some points there are repetitions; then, there's some excessive drama and inflation even. Just read this line a couple of times: "this failed migration was a stark reminder of our fragility". Okay, but to whom? To them? That would be a rather silly way of putting it. Really, they were dead and it's not like they sent a messenger back to whence they came from, to let them know that they kind of died out. To us then? Ok let's try that. So maybe it reminded the archologists and scientists of human fragility. I bet it did. But clearly that's not the intended meaning of this line of text. It is just weird - the next bit doesn't continue to clarify that one overdramatic line. It just leaves me as the viewer hanging, wondering. And not in a good way - but I guess that's just me.

The thought occurred to me that this sounds a lot like something chatgpt would write. And I wouldn't even blame her for doing that. After all, it's five episodes she had to fill.

I felt enriched by watching this series, but also it felt like it could and perhaps should have been a lot shorter and less dramatic.

I would like to see the entire series fit in a feature of an hour - hour and a half. Without the inflated drama and repetitions. Then I would gladly have given 10 stars.

On several occasions I thought we were going to have to wait for the presenter to have a cry before we could move on. It is just too dramatic for me. Is a shame because it is so interesting. Was slightly put off at the beginning by the writer's basic mistake; I'm sure a lot of primary school pupils can tell you that 300 000 years isn't a third longer than 200 000.

Warning : I only watched 20 minutes of it then stopped.

I couldn't watch this which is annoying because I really wanted to. The style was too awful for me. Incessant and unnecessary music. Maybe this is the way the BBC does these things now. Annoying way the presenter approached the camera all the time. Her way of talking.

Go watch Civilisation to see how a documentary should be done.