A very weird comparison, the brief history of time is a popular science book aimed at laymen, it sacrifices precision for a larger audience and is not really a dry book.
[1] example from WSJ that mentions the common meme about ABHOT: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-summers-most-unread-book-is...
Context: My formal physics education ended in high school.
It is fast paced and packs a lot of information into each episode, so I do end up rewinding sometimes. And being a passive video, I think retention won't be as high. However, the short videos are very approachable and bite sized. It's very well done and the host is quite entertaining. The past year, my interest in space and physics has increased a bunch. It feels like learning the deeper history and context in which all of humanity is embedded.