Simply Perfect

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

First, let me say I enjoyed this series. Highly entertaining and informative for the most part. However, I think the cartoons cheapen the presentation. When a documentary resorts to cartooning it is insulting, i.e., "The Greeks" and the new "Cosmos." I am not sure the intoxicating effects were the catalyst for the thirst for more beer. This premise is suspect, that being it was the overriding drive to be intoxicated which gave rise to subsequent technology. And there is no doubt beer led to many important discoveries as well as the foundation for other discoveries. There were other reasons for the taste for beer: It signified wealth and prosperity. Beer became its own currency for a time. Otherwise, I highly enjoyed the series getting past the basic premise of the desire to become light headed...yet that premise in the series remains and as such it is bothersome.

I love this documentary - so much so that when it was taken off of Netflix I bought the DVD. The narration is humorously delivered to you in a matter-of-fact kind of way with a touch of boasting. Nice simple animations and historical re-enactments are inserted among interviews in a delightful way. This is the best "feel-good-about-beer" video I have ever seen. I don't think the following is spoiling anything, but I checked the spoiler alert box anyway. The documentary makes some incredible statements. Who could imagine that beer is responsible for the invention of writing, or modern medicine, or refrigeration, or the production line in factories which put an end to child labor! It is reason people stopped wandering and started farming. Beer saved millions of people from death during the plagues. It was even used to pay the people who built the pyramids! This is a great tribute to an amazing drink, and I would like to see many more documentaries made like this one.

This documentary was really a blast. It presents a seemingly reasonable case for how important beer was in human history. It is also filled with really great dry wit. I also really liked the funny cartoons used to present a lot of the material. I would, however, really like to hear some serious academic criticisms of the theories presented in this film, although I'm pretty sure that the film intended to be a bit over the top about how beer made the modern world. Still, this is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen--it was just so fun to watch. I really can't imagine anyone who wouldn't like watching this. Both entertaining and educational. Really a fun time.

This show traces the important role that beer has played in human history from the probable origins of the first beer at the dawn of history to the development of a special beer for use in zero gravity space missions.I suspect some of the claims made in this show exaggerate the importance of beer. Was barley made exclusively for beer and not for bread? I do not know, but it seems a bit odd. Even the theory of how beer was accidentally discovered relies heavily on speculation.But overall, it is pretty decent with real experts explaining things about beer's history that are not well known. Did it "save" the world? I do not know. I mean, sure, beer was safer to drink than bacteria-filled water... but clearly other societies thrived besides the Europeans. The world was not "saved".