favorite historical tv shows

[sea_changed]

There was discussion about making a post where people could share their favorite historical TV shows, so I thought I would go ahead and do that: I'd love to hear people's favorites, and I'm always looking for recs.

A few of my own favorites, to start us off--I'm undoubtedly forgetting many, but here are a few off the top of my head that I love:

Black Sails - Early 18th century pirates. The first season starts out somewhat trashy, but the show quickly matures into a fascinating and beautifully-done meditation on the stories we tell--about history, about others, about ourselves--and what stories get preserved and remembered and what stories are forgotten or destroyed. Excellent LGBT rep. Four seasons.

The Hour - 1950s BBC news reporters. The cast here is stellar--Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, Dominic West--and the production and writing utterly stunning. This isn't an era or a subject I would be naturally drawn to, but everything about this show is just so extraordinarily well done. Two very short (six-episode) seasons.

Deadwood - 1870s gold-mining town in South Dakota. The one, the only. A cult show for a reason--you either love it or you, well, don't--this show is incredibly well-acted and written like nothing you're likely to hear on television before or since. Three seasons.

North and South - Victorian England. The most goddamn romantic thing you'll ever see in your life. Based on the Elizabeth Gaskell novel, this follows a woman from the south of England and a man from the north, and deals with social and class issues in the mid-Victorian era while telling a nuanced and compelling love story. Also contains the best refusal of a marriage proposal scene ever. Miniseries.

ETA: I knew I was forgetting something important--the HBO John Adams miniseries. It's absolutely wonderful--the acting is incredible (almost everyone's perfect, but their Jefferson is especially perfect), the production is stellar, and it's for the most part quite remarkably historically accurate. A definite recommendation.

Comments

[dickinsons]

I love Black Sails so much! I've also seen North and South and I loved it. Deadwood sounds so interesting, I definitely need to watch it.

I'd say Downton Abbey, but... For me it got worse in the later seasons, by that point I liked reading the fanfiction better than watching the show. Still, I still remember it fondly and it had some great characters. I also loved the first seasons of Vikings, but I stopped watching shortly before they killed off my favourite character (I'm petty I guess).

[sea_changed]

Black Sails people unite! It's been my main fandom for maybe a year and a half now, I can't let it go.

Oh, Downton Abbey. I also have mixed feelings about it--I do have a fondness for it, but there are so many things about it I dislike as well, from the way they frame Thomas to what they did to Tom to, really, the whole set-up of the show itself. Which makes me sound like I hate it, and yet, I do find it so addictive and enjoyable (and pretty, which is always more of a factor than it should be).

I watched the first season of Vikings and remember enjoying it (such threesome potential!), but I fell off the bandwagon after that.

[dickinsons]

Thomas is my favourite character from the show, and yeah, the way they treated him... I'm glad there's a ton of fanfiction out there and I can imagine him having a happier life.

And about Vikings, yeah, there was so much potential there, and they didn't do anything with it :/ a shame, really!

[sea_changed]

Thomas is my favorite as well; there's something extremely satisfying about a character in a show like that who works against the grain, as it were, of the show's message. He doesn't want to be a servant, he doesn't think there's anything laudable about the social hierarchy, he's completely outside the main through-line of the show and almost always is working against it. In some ways it's amazing he's even in the show; on the other hand, the way the show treats him for not being who it thinks he should be is horrible. I definitely agree that fic is the answer here.

[isis]

There is canon f/f in later episodes of Vikings! And also some implied m/m. It gets to be an odd show in the later seasons and is probably only interesting if you have some historical grounding and therefore care about the second generation of characters (or if, like me, you adore Lagertha).

[dickinsons]

I've heard about the canon f/f, and that made me happy. Maybe I'll give it a try again and continue watching the other seasons one day. And I did love Lagertha when I watched the show, of course!