Product: NOVA: Mystery of the Senses - Smell (2007)
Rating: 2.0
Mystery Left Unsolved
I have not watched the other documentaries in this series, so I do not know how in-depth they are as a comparison, but NOVA's "Mystery of the Senses - Smell" was quite a disappointment.I have anosmia (no sense of smell) and have a casual interest in olfaction. I have read a few books on the subject, and was excited when I randomly stumbled across this documentary at the library. However, I do not think it is worth the hour I spent watching it.Small parts of the program are devoted to drug-sniffing and pheromones (though NOVA dances around the subject, using "aphrodisiac," "musk," and "pheromones" interchangeably - which they are not), though the majority of the documentary is centered on perfuming. The fragrance industry is undeniably an interesting topic, but it is NOT an appropriate focus for a program purportedly about smell. This is like a documentary ostensibly concerning vision only discussing photography.Admittedly, research into smell has progressed a lot since "Mystery of the Senses" was produced, and there was not a lot of olfactory knowledge back in 1995 (the DVD was released 2007, not the film). A few minutes of this program deal very vaguely with the part of the brain involved in smelling, but if you want some actual in-depth information on the subject (and on anosmia, which NOVA gives no mention), I'd recommend sniffing out a different source.May I suggest: "What the Nose Knows" by Avery Gilbert or "The Scent of Desire" by Rachel Herz.