Too true! I read a lot of disputes between commenters on threads about the UK Royal Family because some freeper watched "The Crown" and thinks it was historically impeccable, which it reportedly wasn't at all. Much pseudo-historic entertainment is like "Tang" to anyone who likes orange juice—and history.
So true-that is a great analogy, “Tang” to Orange Juice!
My wife knows how much I love history (especially the history surrounding the founding of this nation, as improbable as it is) so for Christmas some years ago, one of my stocking stuffers was a DVD series by the History Channel “The Sons of Liberty”.
I was very excited, but after I began watching it, there were so many historically inaccurate things that I shoved it in a drawer and didn’t even look at it for several years.
It filled me with distaste for anything produced by the History Channel.
For example, their portrayal of Samuel Adams was in the form of young, late twenties counter-culture guy who carried knives and tomahawks with him, and knew how to use them, jumping off porch overhangs, knife in one hand, tomahawk in the other, like a Revolutionary War Superhero.
If you knew ANYTHING about Samuel Adams, you knew how silly that was. He was a forty-something, guy somewhat pudgy by accounts, and not in anyway skilled or versed in weapons or firearms. I was actually quite peeved about it. After all, the REAL story is interesting and improbable enough, why do THAT to it?
Anyway, within the last year I was online, and I saw an interview with the History Channel producer, and he said that series was never meant to be accurate or informative, merely...entertainment.
With that in mind, I tried watching it again, and as silly historically as it was, I enjoyed it as a fantasy, kind of the way I might enjoy watching the “Lord of The Rings” trilogy. Once I divorced it from reality, and knew it wasn’t going to pollute anything in my mind...I enjoyed it.
However, I know there are people who now might have an image of Samuel Adams in their mind that is very much at odds with reality!