TV Watching Through the Ages

SonnyeBoy got us a Roku stick for Christmas last year, and I thought "Eureka! I can now catch up on Outlander! Not only that, I can watch Amazon Prime video on the big TV set instead of my computer/laptop/phone!"

And so I have. I pretty much binged on the first two seasons of Outlander, and then I had to wait through Droughtlander until Season 3 began in September.

Around this time, we switched up our phone plan to unlimited data, so I can stream shows on my phone at lunchtime. Hah! That opened a whole world of possibilities!

So... I watched The White Queen, because I'm interested in the history of the Plantagenets. It's the story of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, and the fall of the Plantagenets after his death. It was pretty good! It stayed pretty close to the actual history, even making Richard III a relatively sympathetic character.

Having watched The White Queen, naturally I had to watch The White Princess, the sequel. I had to get over the fact that this series had entirely different actors than Queen - it caused me a little cognitive dissonance - but it was also pretty good and stuck decently to the history. This one takes place after Henry Tudor defeats Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth and becomes Henry VII.

After I finished those two, I totally skipped the late 1500s and 1600s and moved into the early 1700s  with Black Sails, the pirate saga. I really enjoyed this one. (Zach McGowan as Charles Vane was especially was especially nice to watch.) It was a good yarn, loosely a prequel to Treasure Island, with many of the characters based on actual pirates and pirate history.

Then Season 3 of Outlander started! While I have had a few "Oh come on now!" moments, I have quite enjoyed this season. I think the producers and writers have done a very nice job of condensing the third novel (Voyager) while still retaining the main points of the plot. One episode left to go!

But! I had to fill in the days between episodes with something. Enter Poldark, which I loved. This one takes place in the late 1700s in Cornwall. It's quite a good drama; the Ross Poldark character is complex, but I do get angry at him a lot and he needs a decent haircut. Anyway, I'm all caught up and anticipating Season 4.

By rights, I should have stuck to the historical timeline and re-watched the PBS version of Pride and Prejudice (because, you know, Colin Firth), but I realized that this was my golden opportunity to watch every episode - the full UK version, no less - of Downton Abbey. I've only ever seen random episodes in dribs and drabs, but now I've watch Seasons 1 - 3 in their entirety, and I just started Season 4 today.

After I finish Downton, I expect I'll fill in the 19th century with Victoria, and then skip all the way up to the 1950s with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.