Also I agree with the assessment that
Fringe is probably the best of the bunch.
Last edited:
AlternateHistoryHub reviews AH tv shows
- Thread starter CJD
- Start date
Also I agree with the assessment that
SpaceOrbisGaming
Banned
Having never watched or even what Fringe even was until seeing the above video. My feelings on the show itself are it looks mah. I have seen the entirety of the first three seasons of The Man In The High Castle and I like it. The ended was shit but so was GOT.
Honestly, I kind of wish that we had more alternate history TV shows. The endless possibilities for any possible TV show are pretty much endless.
Such as what if the Vikings established colonies on the northeastern parts of the United States and Canada?
What if Bush lost in 2000?
What if Adolf Hitler was accepted into that art school?
What if the airplane was made sometime in the 1800s?
What if Archduke Franz Ferdinand was not assassinated in Sarajevo but his wife was or the gun misfires and the would-be assassin is stopped?
What if the nuke isn't ready and the planned invasion of the home islands of Japan are a go?
Honestly, I kind of wish that we had more alternate history TV shows. The endless possibilities for any possible TV show are pretty much endless.
Such as what if the Vikings established colonies on the northeastern parts of the United States and Canada?
What if Bush lost in 2000?
What if Adolf Hitler was accepted into that art school?
What if the airplane was made sometime in the 1800s?
What if Archduke Franz Ferdinand was not assassinated in Sarajevo but his wife was or the gun misfires and the would-be assassin is stopped?
What if the nuke isn't ready and the planned invasion of the home islands of Japan are a go?
Last edited:
I know about Fringe, but i've never seen it. Besides, I think adding it cheats the other three competitors out of a fair victory, since it's not really alternate history. I've never seen For All Mankind (I am not paying for another streaming service, thank you very much), but I've always wanted to.
His feelings on Man in the High Castle struck a nerve with me. I watch this guy's content on a regular basis, so keep that in mind when I say I honestly don't know what he was expecting. "It's so boring! It's nothing but talking!" Guess what, genius. Nothing really happened in the book either. It was just characters talking and reacting to the events happening around them, like how it is in the show.
Depending on who's writing it, I could see it being like The Crown, which goes into the politics of the Austrian royal family and how the course of the Empire changes with Ferdinand's survival. Of course, that depends on the viewer knowing who Franz Ferdinand is.
I'd imagine it'd be something like The Pacific TV show, but a lot bloodier.
His feelings on Man in the High Castle struck a nerve with me. I watch this guy's content on a regular basis, so keep that in mind when I say I honestly don't know what he was expecting. "It's so boring! It's nothing but talking!" Guess what, genius. Nothing really happened in the book either. It was just characters talking and reacting to the events happening around them, like how it is in the show.
Depending on who's writing it, I could see it being like The Crown, which goes into the politics of the Austrian royal family and how the course of the Empire changes with Ferdinand's survival. Of course, that depends on the viewer knowing who Franz Ferdinand is.
I'd imagine it'd be something like The Pacific TV show, but a lot bloodier.
Imagine a comedy where Hitler is accepted into art school and lives a happy life. Then maybe he has to convince his alternate self to not be evil?
I was hoping he would talk about other recent shows, like Noughts + Crosses, 1983, and 11.22.63.
There's also a bunch of movies that he could have given some attention for a quick review.
Currently, books are the medium where you can find most alternate history stories.
Anyway, I've never heard of Fringe before and the premise, while interesting, would have been so overwhelming that I would have stopped caring about the story and quit watching it.
Cody's review of TMITHC was a bit more harsh than I was expecting, but he does bring up some obvious characterization/plot problems. I wonder how close it was to the book .
Interestingly enough, I never thought that For All Mankind was a(n) (excessively) boring show. Yeah, it starts of slow, but I wasn't really expecting an action-induced plot. For what it was, I thought it was a good season to start off, despite some forced wokeness.
There's also a bunch of movies that he could have given some attention for a quick review.
Currently, books are the medium where you can find most alternate history stories.
Anyway, I've never heard of Fringe before and the premise, while interesting, would have been so overwhelming that I would have stopped caring about the story and quit watching it.
Cody's review of TMITHC was a bit more harsh than I was expecting, but he does bring up some obvious characterization/plot problems. I wonder how close it was to the book .
Interestingly enough, I never thought that For All Mankind was a(n) (excessively) boring show. Yeah, it starts of slow, but I wasn't really expecting an action-induced plot. For what it was, I thought it was a good season to start off, despite some forced wokeness.
Last edited:
Fringe is kind of cheating because it doesn't follow the same alternate history standard (People that are living in an enclosed alternate universe based on POD), but instead the prime cast are thrusted into this interdimensional conflict with the alternate world because of Walter Bishop's huge screw-up. Still, I agree that it's probably the best how out of the bunch, and I did like the show when I watched it.
I really enjoyed For All Mankind so I was a bit surprised when he thought of it as boring. I mean, it's a show that doesn't involve military action or fight scenes, but more about the characters and how the entire NASA program is pushing technology to the limit, often with fatal results. I'm hoping for a Season 2, but let's see how it goes.
Since I have a tendency to avoid Axis victory scenarios, I can't really comment on The Man In The High Castle but man is it a shock that you can turn a Axiswank work boring. Tagomi really seemed like a great character though, as was John Smith.
----
I really hope that Alternate History does branch out more into TV or even movies, as it's mostly in books or in forums at the moment. However, I'm biased towards pre-1900 stuff since any change produces a world that could be remarkably different from ours, which I think makes for the most exciting media.
My concern is that the general public and/or writers tends to not be well versed in different societies or cultures besides the West that doesn't reduce to stereotypes, so that heavily constricts how popular an alternate history show can be if it's not something pertaining to Europe.
The best setting for an Alternate History show that's yet to be used is probably a Roman Empire surviving scenario (*cough* Byzantine Empire *cough*), since everyone loves the Roman Empire and it would be interesting how the Romans would fare in an Early Modern Period world.
TL;DR: I'd probably die if B444's Andreas Niketas gets turned into a Netflix show, to be honest.
I really enjoyed For All Mankind so I was a bit surprised when he thought of it as boring. I mean, it's a show that doesn't involve military action or fight scenes, but more about the characters and how the entire NASA program is pushing technology to the limit, often with fatal results. I'm hoping for a Season 2, but let's see how it goes.
Since I have a tendency to avoid Axis victory scenarios, I can't really comment on The Man In The High Castle but man is it a shock that you can turn a Axiswank work boring. Tagomi really seemed like a great character though, as was John Smith.
----
I really hope that Alternate History does branch out more into TV or even movies, as it's mostly in books or in forums at the moment. However, I'm biased towards pre-1900 stuff since any change produces a world that could be remarkably different from ours, which I think makes for the most exciting media.
My concern is that the general public and/or writers tends to not be well versed in different societies or cultures besides the West that doesn't reduce to stereotypes, so that heavily constricts how popular an alternate history show can be if it's not something pertaining to Europe.
The best setting for an Alternate History show that's yet to be used is probably a Roman Empire surviving scenario (*cough* Byzantine Empire *cough*), since everyone loves the Roman Empire and it would be interesting how the Romans would fare in an Early Modern Period world.
TL;DR: I'd probably die if B444's Andreas Niketas gets turned into a Netflix show, to be honest.
I think there are two main problems keeping alternate history media from becoming more mainstream. The first is that put simply, most people aren't invested enough in history to really be interested in a lot of alternate history concepts. The main scenarios that would be most engaging are probably the idea of a Nazi victory like with The Man in the High Castle or Wolfenstein, and probably alternate scenarios during the Cold War. So there probably wouldn't be too much of a market for something like a series surrounding a successful Vinland or surviving Eastern Roman Empire, or really even scenarios like an alternate WWI. Things need to be recent enough for people to be engaged, as that's what will be most familiar to a general audience.
However, this brings up another problem, in that if you choose more recent alternate history scenarios you probably have to be very careful about how you represent alternate versions of individuals. For the sake of this argument, let's look at the Second American Civil War from Kaiserreich. The Long family probably wouldn't be the most ecstatic about seeing Huey Long portrayed as working alongside the Klan, and similarly, I don't know how MacArthur's surviving relatives would respond to seeing him overthrow American democracy to become the American Caesar. Of course, here we're talking about people from the early to mid-1900s; a scenario like Bush losing in 2000 would be way too recent and controversial to be syndicated.
Of course, these are just my initial takes on why the genre hasn't taken off, and I could be completely wrong. These are just some of my thoughts on the subject.
There’s also stuff like Counterpart, Motherland: Fort Salem, His Dark Materials, and Watchmen.
I admit that Fringe is a bit of wonky example being a Sci Fi show with the alternate world only figuring into part of the plot. Personally I think it would have been interesting if the later seasons featured the two Fringe Divisions teaming up to explore the multiverse a la Sliders/GURPS Infinite Worlds but alas it didn’t.
I will say though that I thought Fringe did very in terms of decent characters and entertainment value. I’d take Olivia Dunham over Julianna Crane any day of the week.
I have (its esey gust get the free week, wach it then cancel before the week is out, i manged both for all mankind and defending Jacob before the week was out) and its good, honestly it seems like AHH just doant like tv alternate history? Or at lest these subjects, he couldn't care less about any of the parts that made FAMK interesting, he dosnt seem to like the book man in the high castle let alone the TV show, and the fringe isn't even alternate history TV.
What really got under my skin was when he admitted that he had never seen the show until he did that video. The problem? He had spent 2015 bringing attention to the show, which led to me concluding that he would watch it when it was properly released. Turns out Amazon paid him to go see it at Comic-Con. I don't want to say he's a sellout, but it wouldn't be the last time he placated advertisers instead of standing for his own integrity.
My only question is: If you hate Man in the High Castle so much, then why not just talk about Plot Against America, since you apparently liked it? "Oh, it's too short'. What rubbish. It's more grounded in reality than Man in the High Castle and has relevant themes to today's world, so you can talk about it at length, if you so wish.
Ya, I haven't seen plot against America unlike the other three but it dosnt seem like he cared about that show much ithere.