Ancients Behaving Badly is a fun but flawed look at some of the greatest and/or most notorious figures of antiquity:
Produced by History Channel, Ancients Behaving Badly is supposed to be educational but is, in actuality, infotainment. Done up as a scandal show, replete with dramatic (and sometimes over the top) narration, the show's style is lurid and sensational and, consequently, quite entertaining. The production is generally excellent (though the computer animated recreations of the subjects' faces looks a bit goofy) and features really well-done graphic novel-style animations of each subject's darkest moments that are appropriately creepy, sinister and/or horrific (e.g., comic book blood sprays):
Also good is the ancillary information that the viewer learns about the life and times of each subject (most are from the Iron Age) as they rise in power. As with similar History Channel offerings, Ancients Behaving Badly covers the contemporary political and military history, and the discussion of military weapons and technology is quite good, such as the ballista:
Each show ends with the historical figure being analyzed by an "Ancients Behaving Badly Psychograph." The y-axis rates them from "goal driven killer" to "psychopathic murderer", while the x-axis measures individual pathologies. The subject is then compared to other miscreants, ancient and modern.
Sounds good, right?
Well, Ancients Behaving Badly turns groan worthy when it comes to historical accuracy. Beyond run of the mill problems, such as misquoting names and dates, where the show really falls down is when it misleadingly suggests rumor and innuendo as fact: For example, in the episode on Nero, Ancients Behaving Badly repeats the myth that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The guy actually did plenty of terrible things, so there's no reason to perpetuate politically motivated falsehoods two millennium after the fact.
Moreover, sometimes Ancients Behaving Badly veers straight into character assassination: For example, in the episode on Hannibal Barca, the show begins by asking "Was Hannibal a great general or just a ruthless killer?" Given that the Carthaginian was arguably the greatest military commander of all time, this is a ridiculously loaded question:
To rise to the top of power like these people did, the subjects had to be ruthless and do some terrible things, so there's real material to use for a show like this. Consequently, there's no reason to stoop to the level of a political attack ad.
Overall, I did personally like Ancients Behaving Badly and I really want to give the program some love because K's dad is one of the regular contributors! However, I'm leery of giving the show a high rating because it's hard for a casual viewer to distinguish between fact and opinion (or outright fiction).
SC's Parting Shot: 5 of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment