Barbarians

Has anyone else watched those "Barbarians" shows on the Histrionic Channel? Has anyone else concluded that they're the epitome of high school history? That is, lurid, pat, tidy, simple, and almost entirely wrong?

"History" of this sort wears me down. Instead of consulting the experts in the field and presenting what historians believe to be what's true, they find three or four guys at Moe's Bar and Grill who profess to be experts because they read the sidebar in a high school history book about the Goths and the Battle of Adrianople and, maybe, watched parts of Gladiator.

But sometimes the Histrionic Channel redeems itself. Just yesterday I watched a show called "The Conquerors" that, in this instance, was about C. Julius Caesar and the conquest of Gaul. I thought it was very well done. It was even-handed, reasonably comprehensive considering the hour-long format, and revelatory of Caesar's personality. And I have to say, the recreationists they used in the TV show were very, very good.

The difference, I think, is that the BBC was behind "The Conquerors" and the Histrionic Channel was behind "Barbarians". Hmm.