/m/ - media

i love Akira Kurosawa's period pieces, they're visually incredible and many of the stories have shakespearean influences. it's hard to pick a fave but i'm gonna go with Ran (1985).

This is a bit of an odd suggestion but I really enjoyed Kingdom, it's a Korean period drama about a zombie pandemic. It's 2 seasons with a finale movie, a lot of fun.

I fucking hate Mad Men.

>>433681
I know nothing about it. Why?

Fuck the haters, I liked it. Watched all seasons + films.

>>433724
this is Mr. Carson erasure

>>433724
You seriously didn't think there was a huge drop in quality after the first season? I just remember watching the second season and thinking "wait a minute, was this show always retarded?"

>>433681
Mad Men is so overrated, but it does capture the lifestyle accurately. I know this because my dad told me about my grandpa who literally had the same job as Don Draper in NY in the same exact era and all that shit was real af.

>>433724
i picked it up thinking it'd be extremely well-written prestige period drama like brideshead revisited…
i see the appeal though but honestly its only a step up from bridgerton

One of my favorite TV shows of all time. The first season was meh but the rest of the show was incredible. There aren't enough high-quality shows/movies about pirates.

>>433810
ohhh its on netflix. i'll check it out. i love 1700s time period / naval stuff. have you seen hornblower? it's not pirates (some do appear tho) but its also really good

>>433787
>it does capture the lifestyle accurately
No.
https://nypost.com/2007/08/27/vice-presidents/
>For the record, not everybody remembers the workplace being as libertinist, or as male-dominated, as “Mad Men” depicts.
>To ad-business giant Allen Rosenshine, the former CEO and chairman (now chairman emeritus) of BBDO, the show is “a total fabrication.”
>“I won’t deny that there was drinking, but it was never like that,” he says. “And if anybody talked to women the way these goons do, they’d have been out on their ass.”
https://www.cnn.com/2012/03/24/opinion/lois-mad-men
>“Mad Men” is nothing more than the fulfillment of every possible stereotype of the early 1960s bundled up nicely to convince consumers that the sort of morally repugnant behavior exhibited by its characters—with one-night-stands and excessive consumption of Cutty Sark and Lucky Strikes—is glamorous and “vintage.”
>And, unlike the TV “Mad Men,” we worked full, exhausting, joyous days: pitching new business, creating ideas, “comping” them up, storyboarding them, selling them, photographing them, and directing commercials. And our only “extracurricular activity” was chasing fly balls and dunking basketballs on our agency softball and basketball teams!
From 'The Real Mad Men' by Andrew Cracknell
>Their [interviewed veterans of Madison Avenue, men and women] reaction to their portrayal on Mad Men is a different matter. Uniformly, they loathed the first few episodes so much so that many have not returned to the series. They were offended more at the portrayal of the dishonesty and double dealing than they were at the drinking and fornicating. In the summer of 2010, George Lois wrote a furious piece for Playboy magazine that was openly hostile to everyone involved in the production.
>One thing of which they are all equally contemptuous is the output of Sterling Cooper. But then they have every right. None of them would ever have wanted to work for Draper and none of his department would have got a job at any of their agencies. Particularly Draper himself. Too phony.
https://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/camille_paglias_glittering_images/
>To me, it ["The Sopranos"] was out of date—it was by a guy who had left there and had vague memories of what it was like in the '60s. I loathed it; I could never watch it for more than two minutes. The same thing with "Mad Men," by the way, which everyone at Salon adores so much. I was there! I lived through that period. "Mad Men" doesn’t capture one single thing about the décor, costumes, or sexual interaction. It is a total projection of contemporary snarky attitudes into the past. If you want to see what women were actually like in that period of sexual repression, just put in a DVD of "Psycho" and watch the phenomenal Janet Leigh as a secretary in a Phoenix office at the start. That is it!
>>433686
The show claims to be history, only it's not history, it's a false history that disguises itself as true. And the general public treats this show as fact, creating a mythology that occupies the role history once had.

Finally a thread for me since I almost exclusively watch historical set TV shows. Here's some of the ones I've watched and how I feel about them.

>Vikings

Loved it, even though after season 3 it started getting ridiculous and kept getting even more ridiculous as it went on. Tried to fit too many historical figures together who existed hundreds of years apart. Also used way too much magic and fantasy as the show progressed, also started virtue signalling and acting like medieval viking age society in Norway was some kind of matriarchal utopia (it wasn't) but I still really liked it all the way up to the end.

>The Last Kingdom

Truly amazing, makes me so emotional I can't even rewatch it. Some of my best memories are of making my parents watch this show, I'm genuinely sad it's over.

>Vikings (Valhalla) the sequel to Vikings

Enjoying this one too though it's also kind of silly and virtue signally. Still has a pretty engaging plot and sufficient amounts of eyecandy.

>The Borgias (Showtime one with Jeremy Irons)

Loved this show, one of the best on this list. It had so much potential. Unfortunately it got cancelled after 3 seasons and had an open ending. I really wish they had done at least 1 more season. Criminally underrated and there aren't really other shows like it imo.

>The Tudors

Mostly just an excuse to show titties and sex scenes and be scandalous. Pretty inaccurate as far as the actual events went. Actually of all the portrayals of Anne Boleyn this one was not as bad (still extremely inaccurate, acting like she was some kind of temptress put up to it by her dad. Both untrue) but I've still seen worse. The protrayal of Catherine Howard was straight up offensive though, easily the worst thing about this show.

>Reign

One of the worst TV shows of all time. Not even just historical TV shows, it was just terrible in general. Badly written, weirdly paced, character decisions make NO fucking sense. Legit waste of time, do not waste time waching this show. Made by the CW so Idk what I was expecting.

>Wolf Hall

Mixed feelings on this one. Of all the shows I've watched, this one feels the most historical. Like they really went above and beyond to make the characters talk and act more how they actually did back then. Impressive considered it was made by the BBC and probably had a small budget. Based on the first 2 novels of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy (which I've never read). It's unfinished because it came out 10 years ago and the 3rd book had not been written yet (it didn't come out til 2020 iirc). I don't think they're going to adapt the last novel, unfortunately. My only complaint about this is the portrayal of Anne Boleyn, it made her look even worse than in the Tudors. Also made Thomas Cromwell look way too sympathetic. But everything else about this show was great.

>The White Queen

50/50 on this one. It took me forever to get into this show and I started enjoying it more near the end but at the end of the day it wasn't one of my favorites but it was still worth watching. Had a lot of eyecandy though.

>The White Princess

Follow up to The White Queen. This one was honestly just kind of stupid. Not much to say other than that.

>The Spanish Princess

Egregiously inaccurate and just all around stupid. Still entertaining though and worth watching for the pretty dresses if nothing else. But this one and the aforementioned 2 shows are all based on Philippa Gregory novels, so I guess I can't really complain that much.

>The Serpent Queen

This one is about Catherine de Medici. I admit I don't know much about her. But this show is dumb for a ton of reasons. It feels like it can't decide if it wants to be serious or a straight up comedy/satire. Catherine breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience which I hate. The characters use way too many modern phrases like "psychopath", "retail therapy", "global superpower". I know there's more. It would be okay if it was satire but it feels like it's trying to be more serious than that. Also just not written the best, like it will not explain who a character is very well, then said character plays a significant role a few episodes later and you're like "wait who is that". Or at least that was my experience, maybe I'm just stupid. But at the same time it's fast paced and every time I'd finish an episode I'd wanna watch the next one. Only has 2 seasons right now, not sure if they're going to make a 3rd.

>Britannia

This one is about the Roman invasion the British Isles. The first season was decent imo. But they kill the best character at the end of season 1. Couldn't even finish season 2. The show is not only just stupid and ridiculous with the amount of magic it uses (if it was supposed to be historical fantasy that would be okay, but it's advertised as being purely historical) but it gets straight up nonsensical. I don't even know who is "good" or "bad" at this point or who is on whose side or what they want. One of the Roman Generals is like a god reincarnated or something. This one is so dumb, might actually be worse than Reign. Maybe it's secretly genius or something and I'me just too stupid to understand it idk.

>The Winter King

This one is kind of cheating because it's historical fantasy. It's based on the Bernard Cornwell books about the King Arthur legend. I actually enjoyed season 1 quite a bit. Not perfect and there's a lot of room for improvement, but I still thought it was cool, there isn't enough higher budget King Arthur stuff out there. Don't know if it got greenlit for season 2 yet.

>Black Sails

Amazing show. Really sad it was only 4 seasons. This is the one I watched most recently. Season 1 is a bit slow and takes a while to get going but after that it's worth it. It's the last show I got so addicted to that I had to pace myself while watching so I didn't finish it too soon. I honestly wish I could watch this one and The Last Kindgom for the first time again. I agree with the other anon, there are not enough pirate shows and movies out there. My only complaint about this one is that it ended too soon (although I guess it's better than dragging it out forever). I honestly felt like some of the things that happened in the end felt like kind of a cop out by the writers like captain flint's gay lover magically being alive and then living happily ever after on a farm together also hate that there weren't any gay kisses after it's revealed that captain flint is gay/bisexual. With the amount of lesbian sex scenes we got, all we get is one stupid little peck on the cheek between Flint and Thomas? Come on

But yeah those are my reviews. I might be forgetting some. I'm actually running out of stuff to watch lol. I'm gonna end up watching Outlander at some point

>>433879
Reign was such a dumpster fire kek. I tried to watch it and when i saw the costumes the alarm bells were ringing. It was like they raided a prom shop having a closeout sale kek.

I have a feeling you're going to both love and despise Outlander, it's definitely a ride and a mixed bag all in one. I could seethe post about it for hours but I dont want all the memories of my rage to resurface rn rip. Just know going into it theres a lot of assault because Diana Galbodon has a clear fetish for everyone being raped

>>433882
The costumes on Reign were notoriously bad, like they didn't even try. Most of them looked like prom dresses like you said, or from the boho section lmao.

That sucks about Outlander lol. I will still watch it at some point. I did hear about one rape scene, at least it seems like both the men and women get raped and not just the women I guess (from what I've heard)

>>433856
idk my dad told me stories about my grandpa and i have to think otherwise. he had women on the side he'd rent apartments for, he'd drink during the daytime. he'd gamble at the race track habitually. it was his advertising company too

>>433913
Sure. And my dad works at Nintendo.

>>433928
why would i lie about shit like that? lmao

>>433935
>why would I lie
That's exactly what a liar would say.

>>433856
>George Lois wrote a furious piece for Playboy magazine that was openly hostile to everyone involved in the production.
Fuck that scrote for writing in Playboy magazine. Hate that people expect me to treat Playboy as a respectable magazine instead of the sexist filth that it is.