The World According to Jeff Goldblum is a documentary with Jeff Goldblum as the host. The first season is comprised of 12 episodes of around 30 minutes long each, and the show is a Disney+ original. As the title suggests, you would probably want to be a fan of Jeff Goldblum and his personality before watching this show. He injects so much of his own uniqueness, while frequently throwing in his own opinions and commentary, which isn’t necessary the most relatable or normal. The show heavily focuses on that angle and it can be too much at times since Goldblum can be just a tad bit too quirky to feel natural or genuine.
The show supposedly focuses on the mundane marvels where it dives deeper into everyday objects that you take for granted. It will then check out all the effort and science that goes behind it. However, the science is loose. The show is more about the shock factor rather than diving really deep into the mechanics of the topic. That being said, it goes far enough in showing what goes into making them and how they work. It can be weird when it throws in a random sentence about some scientific thing before going right back to the social commentary. There’s no real structure to the episodes, it can jump around from one point to another without warning.
Each episode are interspersed with random short clips that are a few seconds long to illustrate points that Goldblum is talking about. These can be clips from old movies, or whimsical animations. The other big part of episodes is the various guests. Some of these are famous, some are not, some are experts in their field, and some are just everyday people who are a fan of the product that is the topic of the episode. There are numerous YouTube content creators and you can tell that Goldblum is astounded by what they do for a living and how many fans they have through his choice of words, tone and body language.
There’s really no relevance between each of the topics that are covered in the season. The first episode is about sneakers where it first wows you with the value in a specific market. They can be high valued collector’s items and it can be eye opening in how high a pair can go for, and how many people are willing to pay that price. Then it dials dial and goes into the design for a short while before going into the social aspect again.
Then the second episode goes on about ice cream and this one has a more personal touch to it. There is a quick history of how it was created, then onto some famous ice cream makers to finally Goldblum trying to create a flavor himself. It is interesting in that it shows off a lot of ice cream flavors that you would not have expected to work (and yet apparently it does), as well as a surprising fact about the navy and ice cream.
After watching two episodes, you’ll get an idea of the tone of the show and how it is structured. Is it informative? It is somewhat, but it has enough interesting pieces scattered about that you would have never learnt or realized is true. The best parts are when it throws surprising advancements in its field such as how tattoos can be used in the medical field to indicate when someone has been out in the sun too long. Or how there are serious collectors who would pay through the roof for old denim jeans, with people actually scavenging old abandoned mining buildings for them to sell.
Several of the topics have enough content for a whole season, so thirty minutes can often not be enough to go into them with any depth. As such, it can feel too shallow at times, barely scratching the surface and instead focusing on “cheap” entertainment such as social commentary. Overall, The World According to Jeff Goldblum caters to a specific taste, and that is if you enjoy his personality. Even if you do, having a whole season of it may tip you over the edge as it can get too much at times. Apart from that, the topics can be surprisingly interesting, but there is a huge reliance on social influencers.
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