Seconded most highly. The four plays - King Henry IV part one and two, King Henry V and Richard II - absolutely enthralling television.
There's one about Catherine II if that helps.

Also, Borgias is pretty sweet, though not as violent/sexual as you may have been led to believe. Jeremy Irons is of course flawless but a real shout-out to Francois Arnaud as Cesare and Colm Feore as the Borgias' sworn enemy, Cardinal della Rovere.
Meh, he wasn't so great.
Sounds excellent. I'll add it to my ever-growing list.

I've slacked abhorrently on my Prussian history but he seemed pretty awesome to me, and any show which included the Seven Years War (the first Word War as far as I know) should be pretty amazing TV. You can't deny that you'd **** yourself at the possibility at a Bismark series though.

Ah yeah it would be great, no doubt. I was just making a bad pun on his name. I love all that historical ****. Watching one about Napoleon atm. Man was he a bad ass! Can't beat properly researched historical dramas. You watched Versailles yet? I think you'd love that ****.

I have not. I've been listening to Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast though, and his five-part series on WW1 (Blueprint for Armaggedon) starts by talking about Napoleon and the French Revolution and how the invasion of France by basically all of Europe revolutionized war due to the mobilization of all of France in retaliation, an unprecedented move in Europe that created for the first time an entire nation going to war, rather than poncy aristocrats hiring mercenary armies to fight battles with other mercenary armies for a few months to decide who gets what province.

Fascinating stuff that makes me stop listening and go out to smoke a cigarette just so I can ruminate on what I've just heard (cigs are good for making you think). I figure you'd love Carlin.

https://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

Currently on Amazon considering whether I should pull the trigger and buy this...

https://www.amazon.com/Iron-Kingdom-.../dp/0674031962

Ok, I binge watched Altered Carbon, finished yesterday.

You know what it is ? It's the modern day cyberpunk. Not the 80's cyberpunk, with the rage, anti corporate messages, individualism etc. Nope. It's the dystopian future we deserve, a new cyberpunk, dirty, amoral and with social differences so big, they make present day billionaires seem like average joes.

This show.. I can't really find a single serious weakness in it. Ok, one but that's a personal thing - the soundtrack is .. underwhelming. Many shows, like the 1st season of True Detective, had amazing music I listened to long after the show was done, TD was one of them. Altered Carbon ? Not so much.
But beyond that ? Wow. The script is great, mature and realistic - and very dark as a result. The story has surprising plot twists, is original - this is not yet another sf show with cops, blasters, aliens and whatnot.
Characters are memorable, both the regulars and those in the episodes. I don't want to spoil anything, again, but the cast is great.
Finally, 2 issues that can't be ignored: sex and violence. Both very prominent in the series. Sex ranges from fantastic to extremely disturbing, but I won't spoil anything here.
The violence is always done very well. I often find myself bored with the same old stupid fistfights and shootouts half of the tv shows use, but here, it's different. It feels like they hired a serious team of action scene choreographers and cameramen, and the effects are great.

Generally I rate it at 9/10. 2nd best sci fi tv series out there, just after the Expanse. As someone put it, it's "the best movie based on a Philip K. Dick novel, which Dick didn't write".

https://i.imgur.com/bFWVX8R.jpg

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I’m wstching Planet Earth and Planet Earth II and I’m really dismayed that hunting and mating scenes are often edited (self-censored) and portrayed with stupid suspense (or other mood setting) music.

Nature should be shown as it is. The whole truth even to children. This is incredibly irresponsible and ruins the integrity of the shows.

I’m also disappointed with news outlets because there are certainly far more graphic images from the school shootings and warfare in Syria than is being shown. Show it for what it is, cowards.

It’s not a thirst for gore; it’s a thirst for visual truth. The whole truth. Of course, it’s war is upsetting. It ****ing should be. Animals ****ing and eating shouldn’t upset anyone.


https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.smh...01-guo6n4.html

WTF?

I’m probably totally alone but I can’t believe how uptight people are.

I don't really disagree tbh but I think that the value of anthropomorphizing and helping people become more conscious of their world outweighs the choice to imply something as opposed to explicitly showing it. That said, I think that the series will be used as a credible historical document, so they do kind of have that responsibility to be less biased and more omnipresent.

Half of me is angry at the editors and producers and the other half of me is angry at how ****ing stupid people are.

Regarding the anthropomorphizing: I get they got to sell the ****ing thing but it leads to people taking (probably) false intellectual leaps.

On the other hand, human behavior shouldn’t be censored either. Especially documentation and news.