https://m.facebook.com/CREAMPRODUCTIONS/photos/a.167584503259270.38527.126928917324829/1487766427907731/?type=3&source=48&refid=18&ref=m_notif¬if_t=group_highlights&_ft_=top_level_post_id.1193810404059637&__tn__=E

The comments are going to be more entertaining than the show.

Cream Productions? Who thought that name was a good idea?

Hmmm, I hadn't heard anything about this production, my wife pointed it out to me and I was going to give it a try but doesn't sound good, maybe I should watch Van Gough's Ear instead on PBS.

My youngest's coment on seeing the ad for this show was "It looks like 300 does the Civil War, 'This is Virginia!!!!!'"

Oh what the hell, I'll watch the first episode just to see if it is bad.

BQ78 said:

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Hmmm, I hadn't heard anything about this production, my wife pointed it out to me and I was going to give it a try but doesn't sound good, maybe I should watch Van Gough's Ear instead on PBS.

My youngest's coment on seeing the ad for this show was "It looks like 300 does the Civil War, 'This is Virginia!!!!!'"

Oh what the hell, I'll watch the first episode just to see if it is bad.

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It is sad that I don't have the time nor inclination to watch this. While one comment was "Historians might watch this if you got the uniforms right." all I could think is, Historians might watch this if you list who you interviewed and the sources you based your script off of.

Is this a History Channel production? So much potential, but more than likely so much failure. My curiosity will get the best of me though and I'll probably watch.

Rabid Cougar said:

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Sorry, I am "Viking" it tonight. Have to have my weekly dose of Lagertha.

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Is that the Vikings show?

So I think some of the pre-screening criticism of this show may have been a little too harsh. The primary talking heads, Dennis Frye and Ethan Rafuse are great historians and good guys. Rafuse is a historian at the Army Command and Staff at Leavenworth and is a McClellan lover but he does a good job of defending his position regarding McClellan, as untenable as it is. Dennis is the chief historian at Harper's Ferry and actually lives on the Antietam battleground with his lovely Aggie wife (Dennis' personal e-mail even references Texas A&M, although he is not a grad). So that was the true positive about the show, the talking heads are truly experts and good story tellers.

The show is geared toward a general audience but was well presented and not boring (other than the long commercial breaks and following the trend of the last 10 years for such documentary shows to rehash things they told you after every the break (although I'm either getting use to this approach or they weren't as annoying about it as some of the shows on History, National Geographic or Smithsonian). The biggest historical fact problem I saw was their map of the Bull Run area showing the B&O railroad going through Manassas, instead of it being just the Manassas Gap Railroad that terminated in the Shenandoah.

Were the reenactments farby? Sure to an extent, but certainly much better than that Gettysburg fiasco filmed in South Africa with Ridley Scott involved. A few things that hit me in the farby area were the photographs of the guy's wife being modern photos, a view of troops with contrails in the sky above them, the dead soldier first encountered by the 2nd Wisconsin is wearing Canadian combat boots, Rickett's Battery being a section composed of a Napoleon and a 3 inch rifle versus six 10 lb. Parrots and Lincoln wearing modern dress shoes. But otherwise, the gear was pretty much right and worn correctly, although I never saw a rifle with a sling but that's really a nit.

My biggest beef with the show was the way the tactics were portrayed. Granted they probably had a limited budget and if they put all the reenactors they used together they might have had enough troops for one regiment but the battle tactics throughout the show looked like World War II tactics operating on a company basis versus Civil War at a regimental basis in tightly packed column and line formation.

By the way, don't be picking on the Canadians for these type of shows, they may be doing the best ones now on cable TV. The Smithsonian channel has probably the best overall record for documentary shows today and the majority of them are coming from Canada. Maybe I'm desperate for historical shows that give half a crap, but I'll watch episode 2 next week.

I want to watch, but the older I get, the less interested in the Civil War I become. I want to be interested, but it just doesn't click.

I turned off that Matthew McConaughey movie the other day. I was pretty sure I could see where it was headed. I did read up on the Mississippi history related to that, but it isn't like I went and checked out multiple books on the topic.

We have family that fought for the Union that are from Mississippi . The motives are unclear.

Reenactments in documentaries

VanZandt92 said:

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Rabid Cougar said:

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Sorry, I am "Viking" it tonight. Have to have my weekly dose of Lagertha.

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Is that the Vikings show?

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Yes on History Channel.