Spartacus, Camelot, Game of Thrones... what next?

[AntonyF]

My TV tastes have taken a pretty seismic shift over the last year or so. Not only have I dropped many things I used to like, I'm now into what I think seems to be called historical fantasy drama.

I never liked fantasy or anything historical really, but now things have changed.

I liked Clash of the Titans. Watched it because of Sam 'My Husband' Worthington but found I quite liked the movie, which wasn't my normal thing. That may have been an early shift.

But Spartacus I adore. I just ADORE it. And since then things have changed. Game of Thrones book and TV show loved. Then Camelot. Then Borgias.

I guess it's epic, not necessarily accurate/realistic.

Can anyone suggest anything that continues this theme? As I want more!

I was thinking of revisting Rome or the Tudors, as both of them I found ridiculous back then but after taste change may fit the bill. But anything else?

 

[Goliath]

Have you seen the old BBC miniseries I, Claudius?

It's low-budget and stagy by today's standards, but very well-written, with a powerhouse cast.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

You're in luck, fantasy-inflected history seems to be the Big New Thing. I guess regular history is too boring for anyone to bother with. Keep an eye out for Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. And of course Cowboys & Aliens was also in this line, although I can't vouch for its quality. I think Abe hunting vamps is more of a sure thing.

I personally like both regular history and history augmented with vampires, witches, zombies etc. The Vampire Diaries includes historical segments from the Civil War and the Renaissance, but you have to wade through a lot of teen angst and Scooby-Doo plotlines to get to them, so it may not be worth it.

I really wish someone would resurrect that Supernatural spinoff idea in the Wild West.

Have you seen the old BBC miniseries I, Claudius?

It's low-budget and stagy by today's standards, but very well-written, with a powerhouse cast.

That's real history, not fantasy history.

 

[stonester1]

I LOVE Cowboys and Aliens.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I'm now into what I think seems to be called historical fantasy drama.


anything else?

Depends how recent or far away you like your history. Arguably both Captain America and X-Men: First Class fall into this category. Both feature crucial periods in recent US and World history (World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis) and offer alternate takes on them, positing that super-powered beings and advanced technology were big players in those conflicts. They're probably more fantastical than The Borgias, which doesn't really feature any fantasy.

In addition to the series already mentioned, you might want to check out the BBC's Merlin (can't vouch for the quality, never watched it but it has its fans) and its recent-ish Robin Hood (which I personally didn't like, but some did).

There was a great ITV version of Robin Hood from the 1980s, with Michael Praed and then Jason Connery in the lead, which took more of a supernatural take on the character than we'd been used to before then (IMHO, both the Kevin Costner version and the recent BBC one owe a debt to it).

 

[Goliath]

Have you seen the old BBC miniseries I, Claudius?

It's low-budget and stagy by today's standards, but very well-written, with a powerhouse cast.

That's real history, not fantasy history.

It's no more fantastic than Spartacus or The Borgias. He said he liked both of those.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I thought the topic here was "historical fantasy drama" which I guess could include stuff with no regards to historical accuracy as well as the stuff with vampries. But if we include I, Claudius, then the topic is just history. It's a bit insulting to toss that in with the likes of Spartacus and The Tudors (where Henry VIII never gets fat because who wants a fatty on TV! ) As for The Borgias, I don't know whether that is accurate but personally I found it boring.

As for the stuff with vampires: Will Smith is retelling the Bible story of Cain and Abel, with vampires.

 

[AntonyF]

I guess I want more TV than film.

Have seen X-Men first class, that was very good.
Cowboys and Aliens I don't fancy.

But I don't consider them to be of the ilk that I want.

Maybe I'm wrong to bundle Spartacus + Game of Thrones + Camelot into one bundle, but I do see them as having similarity. But maybe that's my own personal bias. The "Stuff Antony wouldn't have liked but now does genre" is a little personal.

Temis, I never said it but yeah I didn't get on well with the Borgias. It talked the talk, and fit the kind of style of programme I wanted, but ultimately I found it unfulfiling.

 

[Whofan]

There is Doctor Who. While a good chunk of the stories take place in the present, future, or on alien planets, just as many stories take place in the past. The best being the recent "Vincent and The Doctor"(Featuring Vincent Van Gogh). Other episodes have featured Shakesphere, Charles Dickens, the town of Pompeii (Using sets from Rome, no less). The show is now on it's sixth season, but you might want to start with the Eccleston stuff (Season one). Of course there is also the original series as well, which has even more historical stuff.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Pillars of the Earth. World Without End is currently being filmed, so there's more of it coming.

 

[Technobuilder]

Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural had an idea for a prequel series set during the 'Old West' featuring a young Samuel Colt as a 'Hunter'... but I think the idea never gained traction and ended up being turned into an episode idea in Season 6.

Would Xena: Warrior Princess & Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fit into this "Personal Genre" of yours? Both were campy in many ways, but also had their serious dramatic moments. (Of course that was a different style altogether compared to the more modern series)

I wonder if it's time for a Hercules/Xena inspired reboot featuring a more adult/modern stylng... ala Gabrielle: Warrior Queen?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Spartacus started me down this road a bit as well. I need to try Deadwood at some point but maybe this would fit the bill for you:

Port Royal Pirate Series
http://collider.com/port-royal-fx-gale-anne-hurd/92648/

I wish it was HBO/Showtime/Starz for content but FX have put out some decent series.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Have you seen the old BBC miniseries I, Claudius?
It's low-budget and stagy by today's standards, but very well-written, with a powerhouse cast.

That's real history, not fantasy history.

Yes and no. Robert Graves was very selective in his choice of sources. For example, he relied on Tacitus rather than Suetonius to present Livia as being the main villain of I, Claudius. We don't know how much of that account was invented by Tacitus given that he certainly wouldn't have been bound by the modern standards of academic rigour. It might as well be fantasy. For another interpretation, there was an earlier TV series in 1968 called The Caesars that had a different spin on the tale.

 

[Astraea]

I would definitely recommend revisiting Rome. If you like Game of Thrones and Spartacus, I think you would like Rome. Tudors I'm more "meh" about; my two favorite general places/periods of history are late Republican/early Imperial Rome and late Medieval/Renaissance British history, and I absolutely love Rome but thought The Tudors could've been a lot better than it was.

 

[Caliburn24]

You might give Legend of the Seeker a try. It is light and campy, but extremely fun. The characters and world are fairly well done, and looking at NZ scenery in HD in every episode is an added bonus.

You would also have the added fun of playing spot-the-Spartacus-actors, because lots of them appear in the show, since both shows shared some of the same producers.

 

[Technobuilder]

Ooh, I just had a thought.

Why not do Eric Flint's Ring of Fire (1632) series as a Television Show?

1632 In the year 1632 in northern Germany a reasonable person might conclude that things couldn't get much worse. There was no food. Disease was rampant. For over a decade religious war had ravaged the land and the people. Catholic and Protestant armies marched and counter-marched across the northern plains, laying waste the cities and slaughtering everywhere. In many rural areas population plummeted toward zero. Only the aristocrats remained relatively unscathed; for the peasants, death was a mercy.

2000 Things are going OK in Grantville, West Virginia. The mines are working, the buck are plentiful (it's deer season) and everybody attending the wedding of Mike Stearn's sister (including the entire membership of the local chapter of the United Mine Workers of America, which Mike leads) is having a good time.

THEN, EVERYTHING CHANGED....


​

When the dust settles, Mike leads a small group of armed miners to find out what's going on. Out past the edge of town Grantville's asphalt road is cut, as with a sword. On the other side, a scene out of Hell; a man nailed to a farmhouse door, his wife and daughter lying screaming in muck at the center of a ring of attentive men in steel vests. Faced with this, Mike and his friends don't have to ask who to shoot.
At that moment Freedom and Justice, American style, are introduced to the middle of The Thirty Years War.


Now that would be nifty as hell.

 

[Whofan]

I, Claudius is also somewhat fantasy in that it's based on a non-existent autobiography of Claudius. In the TV series (I haven't finished the novel) Claudius hides his memories for "1900 year" when it will be discovered and he will "Speak clear".


Fall of the Roman Empireand Gladiator are likewise based on the life of the Emperor Commodus, but each film takes significant dramatized freedoms with what really happened.

 

[Skywalker]

If it's at least semi-historical dramas you're looking for, try Deadwood. It's not as "epic" as, say, Rome or Spartacus, but it's a damn good show. Depends on your interest in the Old West, though.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I would definitely recommend revisiting Rome. If you like Game of Thrones and Spartacus, I think you would like Rome. Tudors I'm more "meh" about; my two favorite general places/periods of history are late Republican/early Imperial Rome and late Medieval/Renaissance British history, and I absolutely love Rome but thought The Tudors could've been a lot better than it was.

I didn't mind the fact that Henry didn't appear to age in The Tudors - you could hand wave that away as being a representation of the lie of how he saw himself. I was more annoyed that his sister Mary was deleted from history and Margaret didn't marry James V of Scotland. Without Margaret marrying James V, there would be no Mary Queen of Scots, James VI/I of England, Charles I, Civil War, Charles II, James II, Glorious Revolution, Old Pretender, or Young Pretender. That was a travesty.

 

[Goliath]

So, I'm actually watching Spartacus for the first time.

By the gods, what a trashy series. It's a new high in low.