A Resurgence of Historical Dramas

[Crypticant]

I for one am glad to see a lot of the premium networks (HBO, Showtime, Starz) taking a renewed interest in history.

Recently, Showtime(who brought us The Tudors, a must-watch series) launched "The Borgias", which is a pretty well done piece of work that displays a lot of the intrigue that occurred during the Italian Renaissance. I'm a huge fan of the show, anyone else watching?

Starz impressed me with Spartacus (both seasons) as long as you're into the hugely stylized violence, sex and fighting prevalent in movies like 300 (and who isn't?) Unfortunately, their new drama "Camelot", which looked super promising has flopped, at least in my book.

I'm really eager to see Game of Thrones, though I don't subscribe to HBO anymore (not since they dropped Deadwood). I guess I'll wait for that set to come out of Netflix.

[mmajunkie]

Crypt did you see the recent report about internet traffic in North America?

Like 30% of all traffic is netflix and youtube.

On your topic, though...I complete agree, there have been some great shows out in the past few seasons. Spartacus was great and I was glad to see it on Netflix so quickly. I haven't been impressed with Camelot, but I think it is mainly to do with the fact that I had pretty high expectations.

Game of Thrones needs to hurry up and join my instant Q

[Mali]

The Tudors was excellent.

[Crypticant]

Damn, 30%. That's impressive. I love how every new device has Netflix built in. My TV, my Blu-Ray, my iPhone and my XBox all have Netflix built in. Call it a monopoly, but they provide an awesome service.

I think Camelot started off strongly, as sort of a new take on a classic epic. Joseph Feinnes and Claire Forlani are awesome actors. The problems I have (are many) but mainly 1) I hate the kid who is playing Arthur, 2) I don't like what they did to the Arthur/Guenivere/Lancelot (Leonidas) tryst and 3) it turned from a pretty epic action piece with sweeping landscapes and battles to a dialog drama, and the dialog isn't good enough for that.

[Imoutgoodbye]

Loved Spartacus. Absolutely loved it. I've only seen the first season, though.

Tell me, does the second season live up to the first season?

[Crypticant]

In my opinion, yes. It's pretty cool how they basically tell the story of how Crixus became champion, prior to Spartacus arriving.

[f0xx]

Although, if you sum all the %'s, there's a few missing up to 100%

[Crypticant]

WoW probably accounts for the remaining TCPIP traffic. ;-)

[Kyzarius]

In my opinion' date=' yes. It's pretty cool how they basically tell the story of how Crixus became champion, prior to Spartacus arriving.[/quote']

it was a very very smart move on their part imo.

[Streetfighter]

Season 2 of Spartacus was a prequel because right before they started

shooting for season 2 the actor who played Spartacus found out he

had cancer and had to rush into treatment, that is why season 2 was so

short, cuz they had to throw it together. The actor stepped down so the

show could continue and they hired a new Spartacus, and season 3

is either already or should start shooting soon.

Huge Spartacus fan here.

[Pali]

Loved Spartacus. Absolutely loved it. I've only seen the first season, though.

Tell me, does the second season live up to the first season?

If you ask me, season 2 is better than season 1.

Thanks for the reminder about The Borgias, Crypt... I also loved The Tudors and have been meaning to start the new show.

[Pali]

Just started watching The Borgias the other night - once again, Crypt, thanks for the reference, because I'm hugely enjoying it (and it's making me want to play through Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood again, due to Ezio's interactions with the Borgias in the game ).