TV in Germany has a number of positives and negatives. You can never bet on some new program, it's impact, it's authenticity, or how the audience will see the final product. Winners and losers....often collude with each other.
So Sunday night came, and the regular history-cultural-National Geographic-like show "Terra X" came on. It's a state-run TV production, on ZDF (channel 2). It's on around 7:15PM, and runs for an hour. It would be correct to say that they have ownership of time-spot and the show has been on for years (mostly successful because of the time-slot and the quality of the history story).
Typically, they put up a full hour (no TV commercials) of some moment in history. They will spin the story of some Mayan King, a great walk in the middle of Africa, the last great king of France, or explain the Marco Polo legend with a camera traveling the exact same route.
Folks tend to like Terra X because it's four-star geography and history rolled into one. They tell a story....in a prospective that makes it almost a movie, but shorter. It's a simple format, and usually drives the viewer to ask more questions.
This Sunday's show opened up a six-part series....great women in world history. The catch? It's all told from their own perspective....like a reality series today. The video is in the background, weaving all the scenes.....with the actress telling her own personal story.
Last night was Cleopatra. It was an interesting change of pace from what you'd expect. Cleopatra basically told her soap-opera-like story.....love affair with a Roman general.....palace intrigue.....and a collapse in the end of her life with no avenues left. Captivating, would be a good word for describing the hour-long episode.
What's left? Five more worldly ladies. Princess Louise of Prussia (a Prussian gal who had brains), Sophie Scholl (a radical German gal from the 1930s who led anti-Nazi efforts and was executed for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets in 1943), Elizabeth I, Catherine the Great and the French warrior-leader-damsel Joan of Arc.
The selling point of this series is mostly a fictional piece of how they would have seen their lives played out, and what all this meant. Some folks would have issues with the method of history being done this way. In today's environment.....it's hard to get people interested in history, unless it's all done like the History Channel, or you work in imaginary drama into the piece.
Cleopatra's woes? You could almost sense a Hollywood-like atmosphere in the mix. A bunch of Lady GaGa-type characters, toss in some political maneuvers, Roman gladiators (guys always like that stuff), some romance, some love gained, some love lost, and you got yourself a five-star one-hour history lesson.
I would basically say that German state-run TV has watched enough of the History Channel....to figure out the right formula for telling a story. Maybe it's not totally accurate or right....but folks like this kind of stuff. In the end, history has to be entertaining....for us to pay any attention.
Anyway, Sunday evenings at 7:15PM.....on channel 2. It's worth watching.
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