Human

Dreadful. Truly dreadful. The narrative is not consistent. That is the biggest gripe. Inaccurate presentation of information is unforgivable.

At one point I thought this was a parody and had to check. Is not, apparently.

You could make three very nicely paced 20 mins pieces, that could include far more information and data, and be far more enjoyable to watch.

The host has potential, but the producer and director have done her no favours whatsoever.

It is such a shame but this is an opportunity lost.

How people have rated this 10/10?!? I can only imagine that they have been paid for or are friends and family of those involved.

A real shame :(

I think the presenter is earnest in her slow and evocative narrative, but when paired with the annoyingly slow, repetitive and overly dramatic background music, and have this repeat every few minutes, for 50 some minutes each episode, for a total of 5 episodes, everything just drags and gets boring very fast.

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.

I was curious to check out this series and ended up binge watching over 2 days. As yo be expected from the BBC production unit, the quality of the cinematography is breathtaking. The big discovery - beyond all the amazing factual content - is Ella Al-Shamahi, who as a presenter and educator, draws you into the world of complex paleontological research and discovery, without ever making you feel patronised.

Ella is a great find for the future of great science documentary making, and the story and her presentation - and utter excitement and glee in her specialist subject - is utterly infectious. A must watch.

For those like myself that found this a bit slow, it's worth sticking with. If you're not into the sweeping slo-mo landscapes and dramatic music, and just want to get to the bones (excuse the pun) of the matter, I would suggest the following:

• fast forward until the presenter is holding something to show you, or is speaking to someone.

• fast forward until a map or artifact is on screen.

This moves the viewing from wondering and questioning and repeating narrative to the actual information you're watching this for. Yes, you might lose a bit in the storytelling and the overall information, but there's enough there, and there's generally a quick summary of what a discovery means after it's shown. So I'm only really missing the questions and wondering, as the answers are summarised after the showing!

Hope this helps. I find this fascinating, but like others, I really struggled to watch with the slow pacing of this. The landscapes and cinematography are stunning though.