Historical binging?

[Manana]

Hi everyone. So with quarantine going strong, I was wondering, how about sharing some historical film/series recommendations?

Either fiction or nonfiction are welcome. (sorry I am not absolutely sure about the English terms)

[FruitLover]

I really like Downton Abbey - it’s a British TV series set in the early 20th century.

[history110]

 Some recs...I feel like these are almost more English dept (almost became my major...) recs because they are all based on books!

Lark Rise to Candleford - fiction, but based on memoirs of a woman who lived in the English villages of Lark Rise and Candleford and worked at the post office in Candleford. It's been a while but I remember binging through it one summer.

Anne with an E - if you have middle school/HS age kids or just like the Anne of Green Gables books (me). It's a cute series that I think does well at adapting Anne with a slightly more progressive angle. It also has First Nations actors in the 3rd season (an add on from the Anne books) and has been praised by First Nations communities for their handling of residential schools.

Vanity Fair, 2018 - this is a very good adaption of the book, as is the 1998 one. Was a bit skeptical before watching because of how good the 1998 one was, but this one really grabbed me.

I'm looking for some good documentaries or docudramas, specifically concerning 19th cent Canadian history right now.

Edited April 4, 2020 by starshiphistory

[Sigaba]

Meeting of Minds with Steve Allen.

 

 

[dr. t]

HBO's Rome. Also, Showtime's The Borgias. There's a LOT of good Korean historical dramas on Netflix, too.

Can you tell I have a thing for opulent, ridiculous over-acting?

[killerbunny]

Food: A Cultural Culinary History, a series from The Great Courses, available on Kanopy, if you have a free sub through your library. Ken Albala, the host of most of the episodes, is a darn delight. 

[time_consume_me]

Brideshead Revisited (the series from around 1981)

[histori041512]

I am a sucker for war movies. Some of the ones I recommend are Letters from Iwo Jima,  A Testament of Youth, '71, Hacksaw Ridge, and Dunkirk. 

Derry Girls is a hilarious comedy about a group of friends living in Derry during the Troubles in the 90s. I am also a fan of Peaky Blinders, The Crown, The People vs. OJ Simpson, and Band of Brothers. 

There is also an infinite list of documentaries I love too.

[gsc]

I, Claudius -- the BBC miniseries from ~1978, with Derek Jacobi as Claudius and John Hurt as Caligula. It might be on Prime now? But totally worth getting the DVDs for if not.

 

[Sigaba]

1 hour ago, gsc said:

I, Claudius -- the BBC miniseries from ~1978, with Derek Jacobi as Claudius and John Hurt as Caligula. It might be on Prime now? But totally worth getting the DVDs for if not.

The series is available for purchase on ITunes and Amazon for $9.99. (I always fall for the 99 cent trick.) 

At the risk of sounding like someone who has a focus on mass popular culture, when you watch historically themed movies and shows, please consider the advantages of watching with a historian's eye. A focus on historical inaccuracies can be a gopher hole that saps the entertainment value of a movie.  Yet, a critical engagement of depiction of imbalances of power in a film or show can help one understand the benefits and challenges of "traditional" or popular narrative works of history compared to more specialized approaches. (And also, if you watch films and television as a historian, you can say "I'm not 'binging.' I am a historian. Historians don't binge. I am doing research..." )

[dr. t]

2 hours ago, Sigaba said:

A focus on historical inaccuracies can be a gopher hole that saps the entertainment value of a movie.

This, I think, can be generalized to academic practice. Finding flaws in a given work is something any high school senior should be able to do with relative ease, and shows only the memorization and regurgitation of information. Using your recognition of those flaws to build something new and interesting - that is the real skill.

[Nicator]

HBO's Rome

[MtrlHstryGrl]

I really enjoy Terry Jones's Medieval Lives. It is great for binging and it is in its entirety on YouTube.