New Winter 2017 Shows - Emerald City, Victoria, Medici and Versailles

Hey guys so as promised after my winter schedule list, here are my thoughts on the new winter 2017 shows. Fair warning though, since I watched the full seasons for all the shows on this list but Emerald City, my recommendations for those shows may be more detailed or actually tell you how I felt while Emerald City is a bit more vague due to me just starting the season. I tried to avoid spoilers! Enjoy!

So up first is Emerald City which airs on Fridays at 9 PM on NBC! I was pretty excited to check out this show cause I like the story of the Wizard of Oz and the trailers for this show made it seem as though the show was going to be a much darker telling added to the fact that I was itching for new shows to check out! When the two-hour pilot aired (which btw wasn't a real two part pilot but actually just two episodes aired back to back), I was interested but not hooked as of yet but then I enjoyed the third episode a lot better. Despite this, I'm not sure if I like this show yet. Most of the characters are fine but nothing to write home about and I am ironically more interested in the mythology of the world than what's happening. Like is it bad that I want this show to be about Dorothy learning magic from the other witches rather than the original story of her trying to get home? Also who else thinks the Wizard is totally evil? Although to be fair, this may be because the actor who plays him was the villain on Daredevil so I'm programmed to see him that way... I'm also curious about Tip and who she really is and why she was hidden from the world. Maybe she's the rightful ruler of Oz and not the Wizard? I probably will continue to check out this show cause there's only ten episodes this season so why not? Definitely check it out if you have any interest in the story of Oz!

Next up is Victoria! I actually saw a trailer for it on PBS so I watched the pilot when it aired and then I found out that this show had already aired a full season in England and all 8 episodes were online so because I have no self control, I ended up binging the whole season in two days! And I loved it! Starting out, I sort of knew the story of Queen Victoria so color me surprised, when rather than seeing Victoria be a badass or seeing her fall in love with Albert, the first three episodes were all about her infatuation with the Prime Minister. Despite him being very attractive, I was not into watching Victoria chase him like a puppy. Girl was real thirsty and I almost dropped the show because of how cringy the whole thing was but then episode four came around and Albert swooped in. His chemistry with Victoria saved this show for me because the politics of this show didn't really catch me like it did in other period tv shows. This show actually reminded me a lot of Reign and the chemistry between Francis and Mary. Mary loved Francis with all her soul and Victoria loved Albert the same. Seeing them made my heart smile and every time Albert smoldered on screen, I had to fan myself. I'm sorry if you expected a more logical review of this show but I'm just telling it how I saw it!! I definitely recommend you check this show out if you like period tv shows or want to watch two people with amazing chemistry fall in love!

The next show I checked out was Medici: Masters of Florence! So I know I'm a little late to the party here with this show cause it aired in December on Netflix and in Italy in October but what can I say other than I saw this in mid December and it was on my list to be watched but I didn't get around to it until now! There were multiple reasons why I wanted to check out this show. Firstly I love period dramas so I try to watch every single one I find cause I love most of them. Secondly, Richard Madden was the main character and hello how can you not watch something with him in it. And finally, I am very interested in the Medici family and Italy during this time period because of my love for Catherine de Medici in Reign and Italy in the Borgias! I loved this show and sped through the episodes in a day! I loved the characters and how smart and badass they all were. I loved watching Cosimo and Contessina outsmart their enemies and seeing their subtle love! I loved learning about the beginning of the Medici clan and seeing it all play out! Even though history tells us what happens, the politics was nail-biting. There will be a second season and I'm looking forward to seeing it! Also how hilarious did Richard Madden look with his old guy make up?

And the last show I checked out so far was Versailles! This is another show that aired abroad in 2015 or 2016 depending on the country but was also added to Netflix in December. Again I wanted to check this show out because it was a period drama and set in France whose monarchy I was interested in because of The Musketeers and Reign again. Honestly if there's a period show about royalty, I'm on board 100% regardless of what country it's set in! I love history so these kind of shows are my bread and butter. Unfortunately this show was not as great as the others. I did watch all 10 episodes but more because I didn't want to stop in the middle rather than being interested in the show. None of the characters really called out to me and the plot was sometimes so-so and other times so very slow and boring. It got to the point where I kept looking at the episode left count and wondering why the show wasn't over yet. The only character I sympathized with was Henrietta and then the finale happened. I kept hoping that they'd give her some happiness with her husband because I'm a sucker for that stuff but nope. Louis XIV confused me from very early on and I was never able to love him like I should. What kind of king in that time forgave his wife not only for infidelity but for actually birthing some other man's child? She should have been beheaded for treason or something. I'm not condoning this, I'm just stating the facts based on the time period. Instead Louis was pissed for like a little while before actually going back to her! And the kicker was that he didn't even love her so it just made him look like a pushover. All he did the whole show was sleep around and piss off his brother who I liked more than him. Honestly I probably will watch the next season whenever it airs because despite not loving this show, I didn't hate it either.

Well that's all for now! Keep an eye out for another one of these winter show reviews in February for a few more shows that I'm going to check out!

xoxo Allie

Period TV Shows Set in Chronological Order

Hi everyone!! One of my first tv shows has always been period dramas. I love the sweeping costumes and beautiful romances that they portray but if you're like me, you also like to know the correct chronological order for the shows you watch.  So without further ado, I'm going to list all the period shows that I have watched or heard of and place them in correct order they appeared in history. Some of these are more historical than others so keep that in mind if you want to watch them!

Vikings (Begins in 793)

Medici: Masters of Florence (Begins in 1434)

The White Queen (Begins in 1464)

The White Princess (Begins in 1485)

The Borgias (Begins in 1492)

The Spanish Princess (Begins in 1501)

The Tudors (Begins in 1518)

The Serpent Queen (Set in 1533)

Reign (Begins in 1557)

*Less historical fiction than historical homage with the costumes and such*

The Musketeers (Begins in the 1630s)

Versailles (Begins in 1667)

Black Sails (Begins in the 1730s)

Outlander (Begins in 1743)

The Great (Begins in late 1700s)

TURN: Washington's Spies (Begins in 1776)

Poldark (Begins in 1783)

Bridgerton (Begins in 1813)

*Watch this one as more of a parallel historical fantasy*

Victoria (Begins in 1837)

The Paradise (Begins in 1875)

Murdoch Mysteries (Begins in 1895)

The Alienist (Begins in 1896)

Downton Abbey (Begins in 1912)

Peaky Blinders (Begins in 1918)

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (Set in the 1920s)

Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Begins in 1958)

Fun Facts:

Personally I would watch The White Queen, The White Princess, The Spanish Princess, and The Tudors back to back and then watch The Borgias afterwards cause those four shows take place over 3 different English royals and it makes more sense to watch the shows with characters we've already met and then jump over to Italy and what was happening there at the time. Many of the same characters are in all four shows though none of the actors except one reprise their roles.

The Borgias takes place three generations after Cosimo de Medici ruled Florence although the Medici are not really a huge part of The Borgias.

Reign is set just a few years after the Tudors in that the characters in Reign might have appeared in Tudors or were one or two generations of descendants from characters that appeared in the Tudors. Mary Tudor is mentioned and Elizabeth Tudor is a main character in the later seasons of Reign. Also Catherine de Medici is five generations descended from Cosimo de Medici.

I'd also recommend watching The Serpent Queen and Reign back to back given that Catherine de Medici who is the lead of The Serpent Queen is also a main character in Reign as Francis's mother.

Reign and Bridgerton are the least historically accurate on this list but are still fun to throw yourself into.

Versailles is set in the generation after the Musketeers in that King Louis XIV was the son of Anne of Austria and Louis XII from the Musketeers although no characters appear in both shows other than Louis XIV and Anne of Austria in a flashback (again not played by the same actors.)

Poldark begins right as the American Civil War comes to an end so it's a nice tie-in to TURN: Washington's Spies cause you can imagine that Ross was running around at the same time as our beloved American characters.

I hope you enjoyed this! It's fun to watch these shows chronologically cause you'll catch a lot of hints that tie these shows together! I always find myself wanting to know where a show falls in history so I can know what makes the characters who they are! If I missed any, let me know down below. I might have just forgotten them or I've never seen that show!

xoxo Allie