Netflix isn’t really known for pushing the boat out and threatening to shake the very fabric of existence to its core when it comes to the streaming service’s in-house original content, but Unknown: Cave of Bones has nonetheless asked big questions about the origins of humanity and found plenty of favor while doing so.
Per FlixPatrol, the latest installment in the ongoing series that’s already seen The Lost Pyramid emerge as one of the most popular docs in a long time has debuted as the sixth most-watched feature-length project on the library around the world, after wasting no time at all in snagging a Top 10 berth in 33 countries spanning the breadth of the globe.
In this installment, paleoanthropologist Lee Berger heads off to the world’s oldest known graveyard, albeit one that wasn’t strictly constructed by human hands. Instead, the ancient burial site has been credited as the work of proto-humans, meaning that if the scientist and his team can prove that complex rituals in the event of a societal death were a part of their culture, we may as well rip up the playbook on everything we know about hominid origins, evolution, and even the concept of belief itself.
It’s pretty heavy stuff for a documentary, but it’s eminently fascinating nonetheless. Clearly, viewers everywhere are wholeheartedly agreeing with that sentiment, even if Unknown as a whole hasn’t proven to be as consistently engaging as you’d imagine given the myriad of concepts, settings, and theological insights it’s been telling across its chapters so far.