The public simply does not like historical stories that are inherently sanitized for modern political correctness.
Here is another example of an unmarketable story. Suppose the story is about the way the Third Reich built a strong German economy from 1933-1938. Only the positive developments are mentioned. What about the issue of stripping the Jews of citizenship and enacting special taxes on them? These points are ignored. Needless to say, such a story line would not be well reviewed. The viewer will not separate the swastika from the image of war, genocide, Holocaust, etc.; even though these events did not yet happen in the period of the story.
And that brings up another point: practically any story set before the civil rights movement faces the challenge of either addressing or ignoring racism.
Here is another example of an unmarketable story. Suppose the story is about the way the Third Reich built a strong German economy from 1933-1938. Only the positive developments are mentioned. What about the issue of stripping the Jews of citizenship and enacting special taxes on them? These points are ignored. Needless to say, such a story line would not be well reviewed. The viewer will not separate the swastika from the image of war, genocide, Holocaust, etc.; even though these events did not yet happen in the period of the story.
And that brings up another point: practically any story set before the civil rights movement faces the challenge of either addressing or ignoring racism.