Upcoming TV Show: Outlander

You may already know this, as this news has been out for a couple weeks now, but this is news to me.  Historical Fiction fans – your favorite series is becoming a television show on Starz in spring 2014. 

Outlander!!!

I have to admit, I haven’t had the chance to read any of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon yet – although I have had Outlander on my shelf for awhile now.  This is the opportunity for me to get this one read before the series premieres. 

You can read Diana Gabaldon’s post about the news for a summary.  You can also follow the lead up to the tv series in the following ways – on Twitter with the #OutlanderStarz or the account @Outlander_Starz – or on Facebook.

Are you excited? Will you watch?

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

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Upcoming TV Show: Reign

It seems like there are a bevy of historical dramas coming to television in the next year – and here is another, coming to the CW Network, aimed at the teen scene.

Premiering October 10^th will be a new drama series called Reign, which focuses on Mary, Queen of Scots during her time in France (at least this season). Here are the publicity notes:

Hidden between the lines of the history books is the story of Mary Stuart, the young woman the world would come to know as Mary, Queen of Scots. Queen of Scotland since she was six days old, the teenage Mary is already a headstrong monarch - beautiful, passionate, and poised at the very beginning of her tumultuous rise to power. Arriving in France with four close friends as her ladies-in-waiting, Mary has been sent to secure Scotland’s strategic alliance by formalizing her arranged engagement to the French king's dashing son, Prince Francis. But the match isn't signed and sealed: it depends more on politics, religion and secret agendas than affairs of the heart. Prince Francis is intrigued by the fiery Scot, but like most young men, he resists the idea of settling down into marriage, especially when he has a history with a lady of the court and his own point of view on the wisdom of an alliance with Scotland. Still, an attraction between Mary and Francis is ignited. Further complicating things is Bash, Francis' roguish half-brother, who has a history of his own - despite his illegitimate birth, Bash is his father's favorite. And now that Bash has caught Mary's eye, a royal triangle may be forming. While at French Court, fierce foes and dark forces conspire to sabotage Mary’s marriage to Francis and even threaten her life, until a mysterious shrouded guide becomes her ally. With danger and sexual intrigue around every dark castle corner, Mary rallies her ladies-in-waiting and steels herself, ready to rule the new land and balance the demands of her country and her heart.

The series stars Adelaide Kane (“Teen Wolf”) as Mary, Toby Regbo (“One Day”) as Prince Francis, Torrance Coombs (“The Tudors”) as Bash, Megan Follows (“Anne of Green Gables”) as Queen Catherine, Alan Van Sprang (“The Tudors”) as King Henry, Celina Sinden (newcomer) as Greer, Caitlin Stasey (newcomer) as Kenna, Anna Popplewell (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”) as Lola, and Jenessa Grant (“Cyberbully”) as Aylee.

You might recognize a couple of the names and faces that are joining this cast – particularly Torrence Coombs, who played Thomas Culpepper in Showtime’s The Tudors, and Alan Van Sprang, who played Sir Francis Bryan in The Tudors.

I’m sort of anticipating a Gossip Girl set in the 1600’s but it might surprise me. From the video clips, I think that the music choices and look of the show might catch the attention of younger viewers. I have no idea how historically accurate it will be, but I will probably check it out – at least the premiere. I am a little impressed by someone other than a premium cable channel or the History channel taking on a show like this, but I’m curious as to how they arrived at this idea.

Here are some video clips:

This is the trailer -

This clip is a series overview-

If you are interested in keeping tabs on this show, you can follow on Facebook or Twitter.

What do you think? Will you watch?

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

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Upcoming: Bonnie & Clyde Mini-Series

So…have you heard that the History Channel will be debuting a new mini-series sometime this year about the notorious Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow?  I was pretty excited upon hearing this news.  As many are, I am fascinated by outlaws and, even more so, women who are involved. 

I have heard great things about the series brought by The History Channel over the last year such as The Hatfields and The McCoys, The Vikings, and The Bible – however I haven’t yet had the chance to watch any of them.  I have great hopes that this series will run in the same vein.  This will be a 4 hour mini-series which will air across Lifetime, History, and A&E. 

In this series, Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger will play the titular roles.  I think that they will make great visual comparisons with the real figures. 

 
Left: Hirsch and Grainger as Barrow and Parker (credit)
Right: The real Bonnie and Clyde (credit)

So what do you think?  Will you be watching?  Have you watched any of the other recent offerings from History?  What fascinates you about this dynamic duo?

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

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TV Show Review: Battles B.C.

Battles B.C.
History Channel
8 Episodes
2009

I first learned about Battles B.C. when I was doing some research for my Greek history class on the Battle of Marathon. There happens to be an episode of this show featuring this battle and I was intrigued.

This series features 8 episodes each featuring a different historic battle from B.C. Included are: Hannibal (Carthage), David (Israel), Joshua (Israel), Caesar (Rome/Gaul), Moses (Egypt/Israel), Alexander the Great (Greece/India), Ramses II (Egypt), Battle of Marathon (Greece). For the episodes focused on specific people they tend to focus on one or two epic events, rather than looking at their entire life. For example, for Alexander, they focused on his final quest to take India in his expansion of his empire.

One element of the show that I liked a lot was there was always a spotlight on the differences in the two contending sides. You would see what the soldiers wore for armor, what types of weapons they would have fought with, and then ancillary items used (such as elephants or chariots). This made it easier to understand who was fighting who and gave a visual of advantages vs. disadvantages. They also made great use of maps and explaining techniques and battle strategies so that even a novice to war could understand what was going on. Another aspect that I enjoyed, but is an aspect has received much of the criticism for this show, is the way they showed fighting scenes. They were done much in the style of the movie 300 – where it almost looks a little like a comic book bloody scene. I thought it was a creative idea for them to pick up on the popularity of style of a movie that had recently come out and to make it a different style offering from the standard History channel style.

I also appreciated the people they had on as the “experts”. Most of them were military studies professors which is appropriate for the material being covered. Also, I thought the handling of the Biblical topics was well done. They would cite different sections of the Biblical telling of the story and then offer historical interpretations from a military perspective. I thought that they were fair to the religious view and also from a practical viewpoint.

There were a couple instances where they seemed to stay from the topic at hand, spending too much time on back story rather than what was occurring. For instance, in the episode on Marathon, they spent the majority of the episode talking about the events that had occurred 50 years prior and there was much less time spent on the actual battle. So I was in the end a little disappointed with the particular episode I got the series to see.

Favorite episode: Caesar – but a really close runner-up is Ramses

Least favorite episode: Joshua

You can read more about the episodes here.

Below is a sample of this show for your previewing enjoyment, here is also a link to view full episodes of the series on youtube – I made a playlist.

 

Copyright © 2013 by The Maiden’s Court

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TV Show Review: The Royal Diaries Cleopatra VII

The Royal Diaries: Cleopatra VII – Daughter of the Nile

Scholastic Productions

30 Mins

September 9, 2000

HBO and Scholastic (an odd partnership if there ever was one) partnered up to create three ½ hour episodes based on the popular Royal Diaries series. This was the first episode in the series. This episode is based on the book Cleopatra VII: Daughter of the Nile.

The life of young Cleopatra is not often a tale told; we usually see her with some combination of Marc Antony and/or Julius Caesar, but her young life was dramatic too. Here we see a bit of her life as a 14 year old girl. Cleopatra’s father flees to Rome after attempts are made on his life and Cleopatra tags along – most of the episode is therefore set on a boat or in Rome, only a few opening minutes are actually set in Egypt. The rest of the episode is of Cleopatra and her father trying to convince Julius Caesar that he should help them restore her father to the throne of Egypt.

As in the other episodes of this short series, the structure of the episode is of Cleopatra writing in her diary – in this case on a papyrus scroll – which at least fit with the feel of the episode. This diary aspect connects the episode with this corresponding book.

This episode had a very limited cast. The primary characters are Cleopatra, her father, and Julius Caesar with some minor supporting characters. I think that the characters, even the supporting characters, looked similar to how their historical counterparts might have looked. The actors seemed to fit the bill. Typically with films set in Rome and Egypt they just don’t quite look the part or have the right type of accent.

As opposed to the episode on Elizabeth I, I think this episode would appeal more to girls, maybe in the tween/early teenage years. There is a lot of political talk and not as much action/fun as the Elizabeth episode and the characters are older and primarily female. I think of the two episodes I have seen so far, the Elizabeth episode was more interesting and enjoyable (this coming from someone who is not the biggest Elizabeth fan!).

You can watch the entire episode on Youtube, which I have linked below for your viewing pleasure.

Copyright © 2012 by The Maiden’s Court

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TV Show Review: The Royal Diaries Elizabeth I

The Royal Diaries: Elizabeth I – Red Rose of the House of Tudor

Scholastic Productions

30 Mins

November 4, 2000

HBO and Scholastic (an odd partnership if there ever was one) partnered up to create three ½ hour episodes based on the popular Royal Diaries series. This was the second episode in the series. This episode is based on the book Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor.

If you have read the books, you know they are written as diaries – the episodes are set up the same way. Elizabeth is narrating the story and there are segments where she is shown writing in her diary. I thought this was one good way of tying the book to the episode. I did read the original book the episode is based on but it was so long ago I don’t know how closely they stayed to it. I do intend to reread the series at some point.

We get to see how Elizabeth deals with trying to live outside of the shadow of Anne Boleyn. We also get to see her opinion on the many wives of Henry VIII. She goes through the age old, “divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived” song, but it was so funny. The relationship between her and Princess Mary is super antagonistic. The episode certainly makes it out that Mary = bad and Elizabeth = good. And of course there is a young Robin Dudley following Elizabeth around like a lost puppy.

This would be a fun show for kids to watch. This episode features the youngest cast, the characters are right around 10 years old. The history is not at too high of a level for young adults to grasp and there are funny, kid focused events too – like searching for the ghost of Katherine Howard.

As this is only a half hour episode, a very limited story is shown – primarily the events right before the death of Henry and the attempt to have Katherine Parr done in. There is a voiceover at the end that tells what happened to Mary, Elizabeth, Edward and Katherine Parr. I thought the acting was good, the scenery was well done and would certainly pass for a child – hard core history enthusiasts might find many faults but as an introductory tool I think it was well done.

You can watch the entire episode on Youtube, which I have linked below for your viewing pleasure.

Copyright © 2012 by The Maiden’s Court

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Movie Review: The Mists of Avalon

The Mists of Avalon

Miniseries

Turner Network Television

183 Minutes

July 15, 2001

Have you ever wondered what the legend of King Arthur would be like if told from the viewpoint of the women in his life? If so, this miniseries does just that. While the most likely female character to tell this tale would be Guinevere, this is told by Morgaine, Arthur’s half-sister – so this is also predominately at tale of Morgaine.

Let’s start with the characters/actors. There are some relatively big names in this production. In terms of the women - Angelica Houston plays Vivianne – the Lady of the Lake and Morgaine’s predecessor; Julianna Margulies plays Morgaine – the central character; Joan Allen is Morgause – Arthur’s other sister; and Samantha Mathis is Guinevere. Edward Atterton is King Arthur and Michael Vartan (my favorite!) is Lancelot. I thought that all of these actors and actresses were well chosen for their roles. There was a great relationship between Arthur and Lancelot and it reminded me of the relationship between Henry VIII and Charles Brandon from The Tudors. This miniseries certainly did not paint Guinevere in a positive light, but I would imagine that if you are looking at it from Morgaine’s point of view, I guess she might not be her favorite person. Gwen is portrayed as a scheming woman. I also think that the character of Merlin was wasted and not at all influential in this show. He pretty much had maybe 5 minutes of screen time and then your promptly forgot about him.

The one thing that really bothered me about this show was ultimately the relationship between Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. To include a three-some between them and have in sanctioned by Arthur in order to beget him an heir sounds like it was created for purely shock value. This felt like something that HBO would have added in if they were creating the story, not TNT. It didn’t feel natural to the characters and at that point I stopped believing in it.

Overall I enjoyed seeing this tale which is typically male dominated looked at from the female perspective. It really gives you a different perception of events. I will certainly have to read the book it is based on The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Here is a trailer:

Copyright © 2011 by The Maiden’s Court

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