I think some of HBO’s new series are thematically linked! The common theme is the Yul Brynner movie, WESTWORLD. You know – Delos – the adult theme park with different eras.
First came DEADWOOD, which is obviously an adult take on Western World, using actual historical figures as the backdrop for storytelling, using a very specific and historically significant location.
Now there’s ROME, which apes Roman World, again relying on a more-or-less realistic amalgam of historical and fictional protagonists set in a place rich in history.
Next up, obviously, is some version of the Middle Ages, for Medieval World. Lots of potential material there, from the Dark Ages through the Crusades through the Renaissance (fudging the dates, they could include the Elizabethean era.)
What Medieval period would you most like to see on HBO? CAMELOT? SHERWOOD? STRATFORD-ON-AVON? VATICAN? FLORENCE? Others?
I kinda both suggestions so far. I also like the idea of a Shakesperean show called Stratford-On-Avon. It could go back forth between Stratford and old London, centering around Shakespeare’s staging of several original productions, intrigue at the courts of King James and Queen Elizabeth, his bisexual extramarital affairs, his strained relationship with Anne, the death of his son Hamnet, etc, his friendship with playwright Ben Jonson. Truly an Anglophile sort of show.
Interesting. . . lot of material there. Charlemagne; Moorish Spain; Byzantium (1,000 years to choose from right there – you could look at its height, or maybe the beginning of the end at the time of the Fourth Crusade). The aftermath of the Black Death made the latter half of the 14th century an interesting time – you could get enough material from Barbara Tuchman’s book A Distant Mirror for several miniseries.