Replies

I finally caught a repeat of this. It was OK, in that it was a good overview. But, as with all these History/Discovery documentaries, they are kind of boring if you know the subject well.

I wish they would do away with the constant formula of having a formal-sounding narrator followed by some talking head (usually a history Prof, or in one instance in this show, the author of "In Defence of Marxism"). Edward Hermann narrated well under the "re-enactment" visuals, but then some talking head would come on and basically regurgitate what Hermann had said, but in a more colloquial manner. I find this approach terribly boring. They could have added more material had the talking heads added something rather than rephrasing what we already had been told. I was annoyed, for instance, the the only name among the executed Dantonists worth mentioning was that of Danton himself.

If they do one of these shows about something I know little of, then I usually enjoy it. If they do something on the French Revolution or Napoleon, I find the show slow and sparse on detail. Try to avoid these shows if they cover a period in which you've read several or more books about it.