User Reviews

The most epic, fastest field sport, and one of the oldest in the world. Primarily played in Ireland but had spread to many countries throughout the world now! An incredible display of passion, strength, fitness, continuity of play and it's played by men and women, and they are just as physical as one another. The women's version is called Camogie for some reason and honestly should be changed to just a Hurling too because it's the same sport. It would be good to cover all those aspects and how the sport represented a revival in Irish culture when it was desperately needed and added to political engagement and understanding.

As a sports and human performance nut, I enjoyed many of the stories within this show. However, Idris Elba sounded bored, and added nothing to any of the episodes. I'm an Idris fan (go Luther!) but his lack of enthusiasm or inflection was very distracting. Some of the games and sports had life in the balance, but Idris and his monotone made it sound like they were doing nothing more dangerous than making a cup of tea.

Idris himself has done some amazing sporting activities so I'd of thought he'd be able to generate more enthusiasm for his narrative.

I could have done without the animal abuse/cruelty too - that seems unnecessary in the 21st century.

Absolutely amazing show. Watch the entire series all at once. Really touched me. I loved the ice diving part and how she uses extreme sport and going through the physical pain to deal with her mental pain. So inspiring. Idris Elba his voice is insanely beautiful and also the cinematography is absolutely outstanding. It felt like travelling the world myself and getting to know all these people and sports is humbling and impressive. A big shout out to the team for creating this beautiful worth watching documentary series on Netflix. What an accomplishment. I can't wait to see what is more to come from these filmmakers and director Tomas Kaan.

Wow! I find it truly inspiring how these documentary makers succeeded in highlighting all these different elements of sport all over the world without making statements. They captured all that's out there; both the beautiful and the sometimes horrific things we do. I find it so powerful that these makers realize that you can't judge these things, in some cultures these are elements of centry-old traditions. They truly respected each and every culture in making this series.

How refreshing it is to have a documentary showing you the real deal and not only the beautiful, for once you get to see content reflecting the world exactly as it is without sugarcoating anything. We are all human, we all share this planet together and we all have our different ways to pass our time on earth. Human Playground shows us how we all play and all the motivations we have to do so.

What a powerful thing to realize that sport not only unifies us as humans but that sport is also so much more than just the physical aspect.

Also well done to the team for getting Idris Elba on board. His mesmerizing voice truly elevated this series to a whole other level! Well done!

Some beautiful photography in some amazing places.

Some, sadly few, captivating stories. By far the best was the lass doing the desert ultra in the first episode. I'd have happily, if uncomfortably, watched a whole series just about her journey.

The comments about animal cruelty/abuse are pretty spot on. We shouldn't, in my view, be justifying or even glorifying these as sport in the way this series does.

But what really grates here is the awful, often tedious script, read by a very capable actor who, for me, was just the wrong choice. There are so many others who could have injected passion to the narration. What might have worked even better for me is someone from each field doing that. How fantastic that would have been.

Love the quality of the show, and the feeling of being connected worldwide through sports. We may look different on the surface, but the emotion in which we practice sport is remarkably the same everywhere. The pace of editing makes the series fresh and keeps you in the rhythm of the show. Loved the Fjerleppen item, as well as the surfing of the big wave in Portugal. The DOP with some wonderful touches all across the series. Hoping to see more of this kind of content from Netflix in the future. Sports are universal and connects us who we are as humans on this beautiful strange planet .Enjoyed the series very much.

I understand the idea behind the documentary of portraying different "games" and traditions all around the world. But the level of animal abuse shown (such as using animals as entertainment, using other animals to hunt animals, animal racing, etc.) it is outrageous!

All over the world there is a movement towards kindness and animal protection like ever. I am really surprised of seeing this, it saddened me. A true documentary should inform the entire true of whichever subject is being documented, this is biased towards the "happiness, joy, beautiful traditions" and ignoring completely the other face of cruelty and perpetuating them just because they were there.

And dont get me started with the painful circumcision performed on a child...

PS: sorry if my English is not perfect.

Great documentary, I enjoyed every episode. People that complain because of the animal abuse, shouldn't aim to this show. They are clearly DOCUMENTING the human experience, it is part of the reality.

I would love a second season with all the other sports and games that they didn't mention. It so interesting. Some people just can't enjoy and see clearly because their ideologies are all over their brains. Not every human lives with a estable connection to internet, completely unplugged from the nature writings reviews online like we do, there outside are some people that lives different and this documentary will show you.

A very great series and just LOVE IDRIS HIS VOICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so amazed by the fact that people are really facing their boundaries to reach their goals and the mental game that people play with themselves motivates me to start doing sports again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sooooo I just 10000000% recommend watching this series. Absolut a MUST for all people. And Idris is such an amazing person to be the ambassador of this project. An example in the sports world.......... for everybody that wants to educate themselves and likes to watch something more relevant about the world: GO AND WATCH HUMAN PLAYGROUND.

This is the first time in my life that i review a tv series on IMDB. Actually, the first time in my life that I review a show ever. But I had to review this show somewhere. This show literally promotes animal abuse, glorifies it and show it as sport. This show made me very sick to the stomach. Make a favor to all the animals on the show and animals everywhere, and remove this show. BAN IT. Instead, take the same frames and narrate the abuse and suffering that these animals have to endure in their lifetime for the sake of sadistic "sports". Its basically people who are trying to show off their masculinity through abusing animals and make money off of them.

Really nice series with great new insights of sports in the world! Truly loved watching all the episodes and would LOVE to see more of this!!!! 😍😍😍

From the first episode I got already blown away. Amy is such a strong woman and I truly have so much respect for her mentality. I also checked their website and they have such a sick book available! I already bought it and it's also highly recommended! The photo's are of a very high quality. A mix between culture, action, rituals. For me sport has always been a very serious part of my life. I used to dance and surf a lot, and seeing Maya surfing big waves is something that is so special!

If you want to educate yourself - please watch the series!!!!!!!

I think this a fantastic documentary because you get an insight in traditional sports and games from all around the world of which you never knew they existed.

I was amazed by it; sometimes "a far from my bed- show" and therefore so interesting and just the reality of how we life on this planet. Some of those games I had never heard off and great to see that they are kept alive. Abreast to see the impact on a community. This is how people life, communities life in 2022, such an eye opener for me living in Europe.

Besides all different stories, the voice of Idris Elba is amazing and makes it even nicer to watch. I would say; go check it out.

It's fine to have a documentary that shows various extreme types of "play", but the show creator decided they would make up reasons why we do it. Clearly the writers do not have the expertise to provide any insight into this. Ridiculous. One example is saying we do scary things to "maintain alpha status". There is no such thing as "alpha", except in some internet bros' minds. It's neither a scientific term, nor is it a widely-used layman's term. Another example is saying something about how 200 years ago, we all faced death or did scary things regularly, not as play, but as a necessity of daily life. Such a blanket statement is completely wrong. Most human societies have been stable for long periods. Having regularly scary activities would happen in some times and some places, but was by no means universal. As far as anthropologists know, that would have been true for 10s if not 100s of years. About the only regular scary thing would be hunting large, aggressive game, but doing so is definitely not universal.

To the writers: Next time, stick with just the sensational activities you're showing and leaving the made-believe "insight" on the drawing floor.

Nice narration by Idris and some nice camera work.

Done in 10 min segments of each item making it easy to dip in/out of or spin through for some of the less appealing ones.

And I did spin on some. I question some of the items come under playground. There were some obvious elements of pier pressure under the guise of tradition. I would prefer to review items where participants were not forced or coerced into it or coping with what appeared substantial mental trauma.

To be clear, a playground is something you enter under your own free will to test your skill set perhaps to include risk to life and limb.