• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Recommendation thread: Good shows and movies that take place during/around historical events(Shogun inspired thread)

They don't have to be Shogun-level quality, they just have to be a good watch.

For example, I enjoyed Vikings.

maxresdefault.jpg


Any recommendations from any time are welcome.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I’ve seen a poster for this before. Is this related to Vikings or it’s own thing?
Its own thing, it's good though. Takes you a few episodes to get used to the voices/accents. Valhalla is the sequel to Vikings.

Fiction is fine too.

It's set around the Jacobite/Bonnie Prince timelines as seen through an interloper. But then I'm only on season 2 myself but the historical parts are quite informative.

You might like Marco Polo, I never got into that though.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
You might like Marco Polo, I never got into that though.
I liked it, even if its basically just fiction.

The Borgias was fun. The european version was a hoot as they cast actors from all over (including America) and everyone just muddles through in English as best they can, leading to a single family having thick german, italian, english, spanish, and american accents. Never watched the Showtime (?) one but it was supposed to be good as well. All of these shows were early enough to have lots of nudity and not be infected with the DEI virus. The DaVinci's Demons show was fun but absolutely not historical, I think it ended on a big cliffhanger as well. White Queen has a young Rebecca Ferguson (oh my...) but didn't really grab me the way The Tudors did (they don't overlap, I don't think, but feel/look kinda similar). The HBO John Adams mini was fantastic. Jason Mamoas canadian fur trapper Frontier show didn't grab me either but its a not often explored part of history. Warrior is fantastic as a look at San Francisco in the 1800s but is about as realistic as Vikings, which is to say not very.

I'd be remiss to not mention an actual family friendly show in The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles which does have a lot of historic educational value.
 
Last edited:
The Tudors is fun if historically inaccurate on several details: Natalie Dormer is ridiculously attractive in it and so are Johnathan Rhys Mayers and Young Henry Cavill.

 
Last edited:
I'll add another recommendation that I said in the Shogun thread: Tokyo Vice



It takes place in late 1990s Japan and it has had a really great 2 seasons so far. For any fans of video game series 'Yakuza' or 'Judgment', who are looking for a more grounded take, definitely check this out.
 
Last edited:
I'd like to recommend a limited series that came out recently, "A Gentleman in Moscow" starring Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Johnny Harris.

series-a-gentleman-in-moscow-2024-a-russian-aristocrat-is-v0-zx1e2btv6arc1.jpg

anna-urbanova-in-a-gentleman-in-moscow-v0-0baylf31t5rc1.jpeg

AGIM-Osip.jpg


The show takes place during the Bolshevik Revolution (before WW2) and centers on Alexander Rostov (Ewan McGregor) being under house arrest in this hotel while these large shifts and changes within the government take place around him. It's a grounded story with touching moments. Good writing and acting throughout.

Edit: The first episode is available for free on Amazon Prime. Also this is technically a Showtime series, so if you don't have Paramount+ but you have Showtime, it can be watched there.
 
Last edited:
I must be bi or heavily influenced post surgery by pain meds in an emotional way: I really liked Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte over the past week…
If you look at them like Korean love dramas, then it will all make sense and you'll understand why so many like those two shows.

I've watched them with my significant other and Queen Charlotte was probably the one I liked the most. She mainly watches them for the same reason she watches Korean dramas.
 
Last edited:
If you look at them like Korean love dramas, then it will all make sense and you'll understand why so many like those two shows.

I've watched them with my significant other and Queen Charlotte was probably the one I liked the most. She mainly watches them for the same reason she watches Korean dramas.
That’s a good point structurally they’re quite similar and I do like a good K-Drama too but I can’t zone out with them due to the subtitles so I have to kind of pace myself instead of binging: Bridgerton is like mainlining estrogen and crack.

Also side note if 007 ever casts a person of color the actor who plays The Duke in S1 would be fabulous.
 
Last edited:
That’s a good point structurally they’re quite similar and I do like a good K-Drama too but I can’t zone out with them due to the subtitles so I have to kind of pace myself instead of binging: Bridgerton is like mainlining estrogen and crack.
I see what you mean once that barrier is gone. The good news is that not many english-speaking shows do a good job of emulating that style of K-drama or even try to go for it in the first place. Bridgerton is actually one of the few.
Also side note if 007 ever casts a person of color the actor who plays The Duke in S1 would be fabulous.
He was incredible in that recent Dungeons and Dragons movie, check it out if you haven't. The man oozed charisma.
 
Top Bottom