[12] These decisions resulted in almost immediate backlash as both roles are traditionally portrayed by white actors and historically depicted as white. The story of the 10-year siege of Troy by the Greeks is told after the young prince of Troy, Paris, has an affair with Helen of Troy, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus. So what did happen at Troy – now Hisarlik in western Turkey – in the Bronze Age? Troy: Fall of a City is a British-American miniseries based on the Trojan War and the love affair between Paris and Helen. In addition to these striking findings, there is also clear evidence of the destruction of the city having been violent, with traces of a fire and human remains found which bear gruesome injuries likely inflicted by Bronze Age weapons. [10] By episode four, the viewership had dropped to only 1.6 million. [11] The show also omits the final reconciliation between Achilles and Agamemnon from the Iliad, instead replacing this with Agamemnon resorting to "ignoble trickery". [1][2] The series was commissioned by BBC One and is a co-production between BBC One and Netflix, with BBC One airing the show on 17 February 2018 in the United Kingdom, and Netflix streaming the show internationally outside the UK.[3][4]. "[18] Also on the same day, Camilla Long, reviewing for The Sunday Times, panned the show, writing, "Troy: Fall of a City, a reworking of the oldest drive-by in history, is so far removed from anything Sophocles might recognize, they should have named it The Real Housewives of Ilium. [11], One of the show's most radical changes from earlier adaptations was its decision to include the Greek gods as human-like characters played by live actors who speak normal dialogue. There's never been an authentic retelling of the Iliad and the Odyssey – they've always been fluid texts. Archaeological excavations starting in the 19th century did indeed find that there was an ancient city at the site. “That’s the real issue here: anyone who says it’s inauthentic to cast Achilles as Black has to explain why it’s authentic to use an Australian actor speaking in English to represent an ancient Greek hero.”. A Spy’s Perspective. Regardless, the poem remains perhaps the most influential work of western literature, and finding the grains of truth behind it has only increased its legendary appeal. That a city existed on the site of the 1868 discovered – which was identified as the possible location of Troy as early as 1822 – is undeniable. Plus thrillers from David Hare and Mike Bartlett", "Troy: Fall of a City, episode one, review: a fresh take on one of the greatest tales of them all", "TV review: Collateral; Trauma; Troy: Fall of a City; Winter Olympics", "Troy managed to descend into cliché even when nobody was actually using any words", "In Troy: Fall of a City, all the men look as if they're in a Calvin Klein ad: Rachel Cooke reviews Troy and 24 Hours in Police Custody", "You Should Be Watching: 'Troy,' 'In Search of the Trojan War,' 'History of Britain, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, Dictys Cretensis Ephemeridos belli Trojani, Daretis Phrygii de excidio Trojae historia, The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (Tiger at the Gates), The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles, Menelaus supporting the body of Patroclus, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Troy:_Fall_of_a_City&oldid=983906165, English-language Netflix original programming, Television series based on Greco-Roman mythology, Pages using infobox television with unknown empty parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 October 2020, at 23:38. In fact, no one is 100 percent sure that the legendary city of Troy even existed. "[15], In a 16 February 2018 review for The Independent, Jacob Stolworthy praised the series for its willingness to alter the myths to explain or remove illogical aspects,[16] as well as Louis Hunter's acting in his lead role as Paris. [11] While the gods are major figures in the original Homeric epics, ever since the mid-twentieth century, adaptations of the Trojan War have nearly always either removed the gods from the story or heavily reduced their role in it. [11] The gods play an active role in the show for the first half of the series, but they recede into the background halfway through after Zeus orders them to stop intervening in the war. The layer known to archaeologists as Troy VI is believed to bear the closest resemblance to the city described by the ancient Greek poet Homer in The Iliad. "[17], A review from the same day by Rupert Hawksley for The Daily Telegraph tentatively praised Troy: Fall of a City for its more thoughtful, psychologically complicated interpretation of the Trojan War in sharp contrast to the 2004 film Troy, which Hawksley derided as a "shallow flex-fest". [17] Ferguson compared Troy: Fall of a City favourably to Game of Thrones and commented that the show will "hopefully expunge any residual memories of the 2004 Brad Pitt epic". [5], The show makes a number of alterations from the original Greek texts, as well as departures from earlier modern adaptations of the legend. There's also something exceedingly creepy about its retro, soft-porny direction (by Owen Harris); every time Helen takes a shower, you half expect her to whip out a Flake. But that all changed in 1868 with the discovery of a burned ancient city.eval(ez_write_tag([[728,90],'historyhit_com-box-3','ezslot_11',142,'0','0'])); In the 150 years since, historians and archaeologists have been forced to conclude, for the most part, that something did happen at the site of Troy in the early 12th century BC, and even that the exact dates proposed by the Greek scholar Eratosthenes might be accurate. "[12], The show's ratings were a disappointment. [11][12] Several classical scholars defended the production, arguing that historical Greeks were "unlikely to be uniformly pale-skinned", that "dark-skinned North Africans existed" in ancient Greece, citing Memnon of Ethiopia as an example. The show’s creators were accused in Great Britain of “Blackwashing” Greek history — an accusation that certainly has racist implications. [17] He comments, "...older viewers can marvel at the silked lushness of the sea scenes while revelling in an old tale well told, younger ones can learn a little, about the names of the gods, and the fire-haunted dreams of Cassandra, and about mankind’s ancient rush towards betrayal. In addition, several arrowheads have been found scattered across the site and excavations continue to unearth more and more. The answer is: no one is quite sure.In fact, no one is 100 percent sure that the legendary city of Troy even existed. [11] She generally praised the show, stating that it has "a dignified life of [its] own",[11] but she criticized the decision to make the gods less involved for the second half of the series, as well as the fact that the show limited itself to only include a small number of especially important deities rather than the vast pantheon appearing in the Iliad, calling this decision "such a wasted opportunity". The first thing we have to go on are archaeological finds. It is not an adaption of Homer's Iliad or Odyssey but rather an original take on the Greek myths, and covers some ground only alluded to in those works. “Modern racial categories aren’t always helpful in looking at the ancient world, but there were certainly people we today might think of as both ‘black’ and ‘white’ in the ancient Mediterranean,” Rachel Mairs, an expert on ancient Greece and the surrounding regions, told the Radio Times magazine, “And many variations of color and identity in between.”, “We don’t definitely know what ancient Greeks would look like, but they sure as hell wouldn’t look like the ‘white’ actors we normally see either,” Tim Whitmarsh, professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge, told the publication. British actor David Gyasi portrays the half-god Greek warrior Achilles in the new Netflix Trojan War series. The $24 million-budgeted show has stirred up a new wave of interest in the Trojan War, a 10-year-long battle believed to have taken place more than 3,000 years ago. ", "R260 million was spent to turn Cape Town into an ancient city for BBC's most expensive TV series ever", "BBC spends £2 million an episode on Troy epic", "Troy: Fall of a City episode 1 review: BBC drama struggles to convince in disappointingly tame premiere The series shrugs off Game of Thrones comparison with bloodless opening episode", "The week in TV: Troy: Fall of a City; Collateral; Trauma and more The Beeb's answer to Game of Thrones gets off to a strong start. So what did happen at Troy – now Hisarlik in western Turkey – in the Bronze Age? But how much of what Troy: Fall of a City depicts really happened? Paris absconded with his new love hiding in a crate on his ship, humiliating the Spartan King Menelaos. [16], In an 18 February review for The Guardian, Euan Ferguson praised the show for its faithfulness to the original myths[17] and for its strong portrayal of Helen, which he stated stood in stark contrast to the demure portrayal of the character by Diane Kruger in the 2004 Hollywood blockbuster film Troy, which had starred Brad Pitt as Achilles. [22] He concludes: "The result is a series more competent than compelling. The tiny diversions from the norm seem thrilling by comparison". [18] Nonetheless, Hawksley criticized the characters' occasionally stilted dialogue. In 2001, painstaking geological examinations of the area were conducted, with the site appearing to bear great resemblance to Homer’s lavish descriptions of the plains of Troy where much of the fighting of the Trojan War allegedly took place.eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'historyhit_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_10',143,'0','0'])); So it appears that we do have pretty solid evidence of the sacking of a city in around 1200 BC, but was it a fight between Greeks and Trojans as Homer would claim 400 years later?
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