User reviews

I can only assume many of the other reviews come from food snobs, "influencers", or those who just enjoy being negative and pseudo-intellectual.

Do I agree that the episodes can be lacking in content and history? Of course. A 1 hour episode on chili peppers, or any single ingredient, can't begin to cover the entire history. Regardless, for the regular person (not a "foodie"), I'm learning a lot.

I view this series as an introductory series. Maybe Food 101. If you want more advanced stuff, by all means, go find some books. Watch other documentaries.

I was entertained. The series kept my interest, even if parts of it were simplistic in nature. Most of all, I learned. And now I want to know more. That's a win, in my book.

I found this series to be educational, with stunning imagery and told by someone with a true love of food, its roots, and respecting quality over quantity. These naysayers can get lost. It's interesting, and makes me fall in love with food again and the love of how its binds us by brining us together all over again. I highly suggest watching this series if only to learn that we need to respect where our food comes from, who is involved with getting it to us, and how important is is to connect with its producers in some way.

Every episode was educational and relatable. Every subject important to myself as they're all things I consume, most of them daily.

"Omnivore" is a captivating new series on Apple TV+, a visual feast that dives deep into the stories behind essential food ingredients, with educational and entertaining episodes on chilies, tuna, salt, rice, coffee, corn, bananas, and pork. The cinematography is stunning, and I was often so mesmerized by the visuals, I had to rewind to catch the dialogue we missed. Renowned chef and host René Redzepi guides viewers through each episode with his mellifluous voice making even the most commonplace ingredients seem significant. Each episode serves as a deep dive, exploring cultural relevance and the intricate connections in our lives. The series transforms the mundane into the extraordinary, reminding us of the importance of the ingredients we often take for granted.

This is not the kind of show you can turn on and listen to - you must pay attention and read the subtitles because there are stories from various cultures and countries - none speaks the same language.

However, that aside, it's very interesting content, beautiful imagery, excellent music, and the personal stories are touching, relatable.

Each episode centers on the culinary anthology of a specific ingredient or food source, that is universally meaningful. And each character we are introduced to is passionate about their contribution to the food we eat, how to preserve its heritage, how to expand our thinking about simple ingredients we use often.

I truly enjoyed Omnivore. It's not only beautiful filmed, it's also educational, enlightening and inspiring. I like how each episode is structured slightly differently, so the show never gets repetitive or boring. There are certain themes that are present throughout, but each ingredient is treated in a unique way. It's interesting the way different styles of farming are compared and contrasted, such as massive U. S. corn production versus micro-farming where tiny cobs are harvested by hand. Some viewers might see the series as being judgmental, but I think it acknowledges the need for mega-farming (feeding the entire world for an affordable cost), versus the need for micro-farming (preserving traditions or, in the case of bananas, ensuring that if and when Cavendish bananas can no longer be produced we have another variety to fall back on). All in all, this series fascinated me. It's definitely one of Apple TV+'s best documentaries. Excellent watch and an 8.8 for me.

Don't get me wrong, AppleTV+ has some excellent content like Severance, For All Mankind and Presumed Innocent. But even with their top tier stuff, there's this whiff of something noxious that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

This docu-series perfectly encapsulates it: that odor is the smug condescension of the global one percent. Hosted by some celebrity chef from a fancy restaurant few people could ever afford to dine at, it trots through some popular foods, focused on just a tiny fragment of the whole industry, the fancy pants artisanal froo-froo segment.

It's lovely that some dude in Rwanda is making coffee by hand, for what, $100 a pound? Obviously this has no relevance to the common herd, watching grocery prices soar and thinking about what they have to cut back.

The episode about salt could have been fascinating, especially if it did anything more than, once again, talk about the teeny industry of making salt by hand. How about the long, fascinating history of salt in various human cultures? We barely get any of that.

Netflix (which in general doesn't have anything near the quality of AppleTV+ anymore) made a good series along the same lines called Rotten. If you're frustrated by Omnivore, check that out. Eschewing the prissy approach, Netflix takes us to the gang wars of the avocado trade, the cratering French wine industry, and corruption in the garlic industry. Much more real and relevant.

1. This is boring, for each topic they explain five minutes and then they show like 20 minutes of repetitive shots 2. History is plain and reductionist It was expected we would know the history of each food, but this just show a commercial look of the item Imagine that for chili they talked about paprika and Tabasco, there is a lot more.

Mexico was not mentioned, even this is the country which consume more chilly and the crazy relationship of Aztecs with it. Not to mention the great variety of chilies they have.

3. Beautiful shots I can say that photograph was so nice, but it is useless without a genuine story to tell.

Chef Rene Redzepi is many things in the world of gastronomy--a master craftsman, creative genius, famously disciplined, a generational talent and visionary. David Attenborough he is not.

Whoever decided to give Redzepi narration responsibilities for this series should forever be second guessed on any and all creative matters. Any moments of visual brilliance or stirring storyline are instantly deflated by the insipid voice that overlays them. Redzepi is at his best, and his dry Nordic charisma most appreciated, when speaking off the cuff. In Omnivore it's clear that while he may have contributed in some way to the writing, they are not his words, and the AI-like delivery only emphasizes this.

In truth, the whole production fails to live up the subject matter. What's more, the first episode revolving around chilies was possibly the most uninspiring of the lot with the direction and cinematography failing to deliver what an amateur could provide with a cellphone on a gimbal. There's no doubt that the crew was high-fiving and chest bumping after wrapping a shot of the Thai chef resting on, and being showered by, bird dropping chilies like he was Mena Suvari. I wasn't expecting to get second-hand embarrassment from my viewing, but this scene nonetheless provided it.

Anthony Bourdain famously said he would rather fail miserably than to make competent television. If only the creators of Omnivore had taken the same advice.

Rene Redzepi, the acclaimed chef of Noma, is undoubtedly a culinary genius. His innovative approach to cooking has revolutionized the food world, making him an influential figure in contemporary gastronomy. However, the decision to cast him as the narrator of "Omnivore" seems to have been a misstep. Redzepi's narration lacks the engaging dynamism needed to capture and retain the audience's attention. His delivery, while knowledgeable, feels monotonous and fails to evoke the excitement and curiosity that the subject matter warrants.

The first episode of "Omnivore" sets the tone for the series, but unfortunately, it falls short of expectations. The pacing is slow, and the content, though rich in potential, is presented in a way that feels uninspired. Viewers may find their minds wandering, unable to connect deeply with the material. The episode's structure and presentation do not do justice to the vibrant and diverse world of food it aims to explore.

Some of the videography is stunning. Unfortunately that's the pro. The cons are legion. Virtually nothing presented was new or novel. It felt like the entire series was a promotional series for a food company or a restaurant or some new brand of frozen foods for Whole Foods. I say 'So Hollywood' because there is so much fluff and so little content. I'll admit that I didn't watch every episode. But I tried. I really tried. I got so bored so quickly that I found myself hitting the fast forward and saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, tell me something I didn't already know. Where's Graham Kerr when we need him?

The name and introduction before watching this TV series,i thought the content was going to be very interesting and meaningful. I thought each episode is to introduce the growth process of the most commonly eaten food in different parts of the world, its nutrition, different tastes and human effects brought by different people and different cooking methods in different regions. The documentary introduction also said"We are what we eat" which is compeletely my opinion. But in this series,we don't see much of these. And we don't see periods of professional cooking process and food raw materials are different all over the world, we just see very very slow picture, people walk around, say some nonsense,like in the chili episode,A family in Serbia,They just roast peppers in the yard and make sauce. Like every other family in this world can do,imean,this is good,but not making a big meaning in a se Ries introducing human's food. And there went some nonsense words again,more and more young people do N't want to do this. I tell you why.tradition is tradition,but it gotta to be a meaning of being kept .Only good meaningful tradition will be left behind. The production process of this simple made chili sauce is less than a few tenths of the taste of the machine, and it is not as delicious as the pepper factory, and it can't make money that's definitel Y going to be eliminated,And introduced some chilis in Thailand.not introducing the growing process,not filmi Ng how they cook the fried frogs with this local chili,just filming some nonsense about they eati Ng and saying their love story,not even some shots of the dishes. Just as a word what i saw in another Review:commercial.i can understand the commercials in tv series,but your resturant is that type tha T serving a little serving in each dishes,and selling high price. Only introducing 4 chilis in whole episod E and you saying that chili planted in your resturant is the hottest in the world,not at all.and eve Ry costmer and cook takes a bite. That's not some interesting plot.just like i saw the series:the bear, Very high scores and dozens awards. But I can't watch it after watching it for more than ten minutes. Extremely slow and meaningless shots, dim light and sad music, you call it art, truth is that's just nonsense. Just like the fifth episode of Iberian black pigs, they proudly introduce that they only need to eat, sleep and play a day without thinking about other things. It seems that this is an advantage, but which pig in the world does not only need to eat, drink and sleep. Those pigs do have a lot of space to move but not worth That highest price in the world which is totally IQ tax. Complicate simple things, that's what they're doing.