Mankind: The Story of All of Us is a 12-episode program on the History Channel. It highlights various people and events and shows their impact on the world.
I recently watched it on netflix, and here’s what I thought.
While this show seems generally well-produced, well done, I just couldn’t keep watching it. I gave up a little ways in to the 8th episode. I sort of enjoyed the first few episodes, but the more I watched, the more annoyed I got at the way they described almost every event or situation as the same sort of game changer, a new era, etc. Of course, it’s true. They’re picking events that had a significant role in history, BUT it feels like lazy writing to play them up the same way. It’s like saying about everything. “Here’s an awesomely awesome thing that was awesome and led to awesomeness.” Please find some different ways to talk about history.
Also problematic for me were two of the men (Richard Machowitz and William Bodette) who talked about anything military: wars, battles, weapons technology. They just seemed, to my ear, to be glorifying violence. I realize that war has been a significant factor in human history. But these guys, ESPECIALLY Richard “Mack” Machowicz, just seemed to have a violence hard-on every time they spoke. There were others on the program (like Mike Loades) who talk about war and fighting and the impact it had without sounding as if they wished they had been there bashing in heads along with the Romans or Incas or whomever. It’s okay to get excited about history, but I don’t want to hear a couple of aggressive macho dudes talking about their fantasy life.
I recently watched it on netflix, and here’s what I thought.
While this show seems generally well-produced, well done, I just couldn’t keep watching it. I gave up a little ways in to the 8th episode. I sort of enjoyed the first few episodes, but the more I watched, the more annoyed I got at the way they described almost every event or situation as the same sort of game changer, a new era, etc. Of course, it’s true. They’re picking events that had a significant role in history, BUT it feels like lazy writing to play them up the same way. It’s like saying about everything. “Here’s an awesomely awesome thing that was awesome and led to awesomeness.” Please find some different ways to talk about history.
Also problematic for me were two of the men (Richard Machowitz and William Bodette) who talked about anything military: wars, battles, weapons technology. They just seemed, to my ear, to be glorifying violence. I realize that war has been a significant factor in human history. But these guys, ESPECIALLY Richard “Mack” Machowicz, just seemed to have a violence hard-on every time they spoke. There were others on the program (like Mike Loades) who talk about war and fighting and the impact it had without sounding as if they wished they had been there bashing in heads along with the Romans or Incas or whomever. It’s okay to get excited about history, but I don’t want to hear a couple of aggressive macho dudes talking about their fantasy life.
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