The first thing I need to address here is the narration: why can't a narrator learn to pronounce ANY names even remotely correctly? I get the impression that they handed the script to the narrator and just told him to pronounce names and places however he felt was natural? Come on, that's bad practice. Coaching him on at least semi-accurate pronunciation would have taken a few minutes of writing or coaching. Make some effort.
The historical accuracy can also be called into question for several episodes. Sometimes the expert will say something (like about how Ancient Roman leaders' reputation for sexual indiscretion is probably not historically accurate and shouldn't be viewed that way), and then the narrator will directly contradict what the academic just said ("Caligula's sexual appetite was only rivaled by..." - like they just said not to say that, come on!). Furthermore, there is almost no historical nuance introduced into this piece. They take the (very likely out-of-context) opinion of one academic professional and just go with that for the whole rest of the piece even though many things are not agreed upon by historical scholars. Occasionally they address this, but not nearly often enough to be academic in any way.
The historical reproduction is DEEPLY inconsistent. At times I'm impressed with the effort they put in, at others I'm appalled with the anachronism and absurdity of their portrayals (apparently all historical women, including Ying Dynasty era women, wore modern makeup and tube tops, who knew?).
The lack of effort, sensationalism, and over-simplification of historic events are very clear for this show. For people with little understanding of historical empires, this could be a titillating initiation that hopefully would prompt more research and interest, but for anyone who already has an interest in the nuance, complexity, and accuracy of history, this series with likely be deeply frustrating.
