Television Reviews : ‘Mysteries of Mankind’ a Flat Rehash on PBS

If you happen to be among those Homo sapiens who’ve never seen a TV show about how we evolved from apes and how anthropologists research this process, then “Mysteries of Mankind,” the new “National Geographic” special airing tonight (8 p.m., Channels 28, 15, 24 and 50) might be at least mildly interesting.

But if you’re a fairly regular watcher of TV science shows, then you’ve probably seen and heard most of this material before, slightly differently packaged, and this “Mysteries” (not to be confused with “Mysteries of the Pyramids,” on Channel 5 at the same time) is only going to demonstrate that one of the things we’ve inherited from our simian ancestors is the yawn.

This review of humanity’s origins largely rehashes material seen in previous “National Geographic” and other PBS shows. It’s a disappointing documentary from noted producer-writer Barbara Jampel, who has given us so many excellent “Geographics” in the past, such as “Gorilla” and last year’s “In the Shadow of Vesuvius.”

Jampel makes a few efforts to dress up old bones in new clothing: There’s some nice animation and artfully staged scenes involving actors in detailed costume.

But too much of “Mankind” is poorly paced, deja vu stuff; yet again we’re shown the pioneering work of the Leakeys, Dr. Donald Johansen’s discovery of “Lucy” (a skeleton with ape-like and human-like traits), how chimpanzees are perhaps more similar to us than to other apes, how Jane Goodall studied chimps in Tanzania since 1960, and so on for an hour.

The presentation is flat and largely uninspired--even the tried-and-true presence of narrator Richard Kiley only adds to the haven’t-I-seen-this-all-before? feeling. Still, there’s a new generation and other uninitiated viewers who haven’t been introduced to a lot of these findings and theories; “Mankind” at least brings them up to date in a reasonably well-structured--if unexciting--way.