Short Review:
With Battles B.C.: The Complete Season One, The History Channel has once again shown their dominance in the arena of infotainment.
Inspired by the movie 300’s visual style, Battles B.C. takes a look at eight military conflicts from the ancient world. Some are biblical (e.g. Moses, Joshua) and others more historical (e.g. Hannibal, Caesar), but all highlight famous generals and their stratagems.
The episodes are broken up into three parts that are blended together throughout to tell the narratives. There is the aforementioned acted pieces with the same gritty style as 300, interviews with historians, and animated maps of the mêlées. Each episode definitely has its own flavor though and the setup stays fresh the whole way through.
Through music and visuals the coolness factor of the fights is raised high. The battle sequences are special effects heavy, but unfortunately the budgetary restraints are occasionally pretty obvious. The background looks too cartoony or the fight choreography just fails to impress often enough that it was sometimes enough to pull me out of the excitement. But these are the rarities. Mostly it just looked cool!
The historians offer great insights and interpretations of the movements of armies and individuals. Several weapons, types of armor, and chariots are analyzed and compared to their contemporaries. Most of the experts have a real obvious love of history that shows as they describe events. One or two are as bland as a boring junior high teacher. The passionate ones more than make up for their lackluster peers.
My favorite part though, was the overhead maps. Each army is assigned different symbols and their journeys/clashes are easy to understand as a voiceover describes the actions. An avid Risk player myself, I was fascinated by all the movements, feints, and attacks. I’ve been incorporating some of what I learned into my gameplay with success. I keep reminding myself that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But enough about my sad social life…
One thing I liked that the series did to separate itself from 300 was that it didn’t demonize one side over the other. Instead of portraying the general in question as good and his opponents as bad, the events are simply laid out. Sometimes the subjects are even referred to as bloodthirsty (King David is compared to a mafia don), but always evident is the respect owed to such brilliant military minds.
Unfortunately, there are no special features in this set. Also, almost all of the battles happen around the Mediterranean Sea. I would have liked to see some generals form the Orient (Sun Tzu would have been great, I’m sure) or perhaps some Mesoamerican civilizations. Perhaps season one was simply an appetizer to whet our gore-hungry pallets and these other areas of the world will get the spotlight in the next season. I certainly hope this is the case.
Whether this is the case or not, I’m going to be keeping my eye out for more episodes. This is the sort of learning tool I would have loved back in high school. Educational and able to hold my attention rapt. Battles B.C.: The Complete Season One is a definite see for buffs of history and non-buffs alike!
