'Period Epic' Recommendations...

[Ancalagon]

Like many, I loved the shit out of 'Rome'. It's easily my favorite TV series of all time. 'I, Claudius', too, was incredible. Moving away from Rome, I'm a huge fan of 'The Tudors', though it certainly has its failings. So I obviously have a thing for these kinds of series. My solicitation is for recommendations of similar, and similarly excellent, productions. Stuff set pre-20th century, ideally. Thanks.

[Caliane]

Shogun.

[Blank]

John Adams

[spronk]

I loved Rome (gotta rewatch it now I think!) and Tudors, even though season 1 was better than 2 of the latter (more politics less romance).

First, GET DEADWOOD. Absolutely amazing show and will be right up your alley.

I haven't watched it yet but a lot of people rave about Mad Men, even tho its 1960s I think it'll probably have similar qualities.

I would also heavily recommend The Wire, again not a period drama but it also captures that episodic, put-you-in-their-feet feel of Rome/etc. Dexter is something I haven't watched yet either but everyone raves about.

I tried watching I, Claudius (1960s BBC?) but it felt a bit wonky to me and I stopped after a few minutes, I still have the files so will retry sooner or later.

After watching Tudors I watched obsessively a few documentaries about the English monarchy. I think one was a 5 part series on Henry the 8th, portrait of a tyrant I think? It was decent, did fast forward a bit but overall good. There was also a good BBC documentary called The Devils Whore about the English civil war, which was very good. I was burned out a bit on docus after that, but I think finding ones on Shakespeare and the Elizabethan age would be interesting as well, especially ones from the BBC. Perhaps ones on the Spanish and French monarchies as well, since they tied in well to The Tudors.

Lastly if you haven't watched BSG yet that would also be something you'd like imo, obviously its scifi and in the future but encapsulates a lot of the same things that made Rome/Tudors/Deadwood great.

[BigMovieBuff]

The two Elizabeth movies with Cate Blanchette were pretty good.

[blizzak]

Roots was a powerful piece. Very entertaining and well written/acted.

[Thorpe]

If spronk didn't convince you, I'll re-inforce the need to watch Deadwood.

[Ancalagon]

Appreciate it immensely, guys. I'm not sure how I neglected to mention having seen John Adams, since I enjoyed it almost as much as I enjoyed Rome. I think I'll try 'Deadwood', then 'Shogun', and then 'The Wire'. More after that. Thanks again~

Edit: Spronk, re: I, Claudius, I can definitely see how the first few minutes of the first episode would be enough to turn you off, but if you think Ancient Rome is a cool place I'd definitely advise giving it another shot. I don't know if it was made in the '60s, but it's obviously older and looks it. Nevertheless it stands on its incredible acting and more incredible story (based off two books written by Robert Graves which are considered some of the best ever written in the genre of historical fiction).

[Kiroy]

Word of warning on Deadwood - when you watch the last episode, and realize the mistake you made in getting invested, you'll have a small to medium sized chance of killing yourself.