On perils of watching a historical drama
Jun. 11th, 2010 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI am in mid-20s eps and am finding The Myth increasingly hard to watch. It has not taken a nosedive in quality (on the contrary, it gets better and better) but the problem is the story is basically watching the bad guys win - you know Zhao Gao will undermine any potential for a Qin Dynasty, you know the able Fu Su will get pushed aside for talentless Hu Hai, you know the civil wars will start again, you know Lu Zhi will get everything she wants, you know Liu Bang will win over Xiang Yu (I am aware they are both somewhat controversial in history but in the drama I am clearly on Xiang Yu's side while Liu Bang makes me want to crawl into the screen and throttle him myself). You know it will happen and you watch how it gets that way - how it all unfolds. That's a heck of a depressing viewing.
You see it all unfold and not only do you know nothing will stop it but these people become real people to you so you actually care about their fate. You know the fictional main protagonist won't be able to fix anything or find his own happiness, for that matter.
It's the kind of feeling I used to get reading Sharon K. Penman's Welsh Trilogy. Sort of an anger/hopelessness mix.
It did make me desperate to get my hands on a non-fiction account of the Qin/Han Dynasties. Off to the library for me...
You see it all unfold and not only do you know nothing will stop it but these people become real people to you so you actually care about their fate. You know the fictional main protagonist won't be able to fix anything or find his own happiness, for that matter.
It's the kind of feeling I used to get reading Sharon K. Penman's Welsh Trilogy. Sort of an anger/hopelessness mix.
It did make me desperate to get my hands on a non-fiction account of the Qin/Han Dynasties. Off to the library for me...
