7 TV Shows That Remind Us History Isn’t Meant to Be Liked

As you look around the world, you’ll see that elements of the past are coming up that people aren’t taught in school, for fear of offending people.

But history isn’t meant to be liked. It never has been, and it never will be.

The whole point of the past is to learn from it, something that we fail to do as a human race time and time again. Yet TV shows are pushing for a reminder that we need to learn, and here are seven to watch to really drive that point home.

1883 (and 1923)

Okay, I’m combining two shows into one entry because they’re in the same universe.

Historically, the Dutton family saga began in 1883, when they found their way to Montana and set up their ranch, and we see how the family defends it in 1923. 

There will be more stories, but you can then jump straight to Yellowstone, which started the entire franchise.

1883 made it clear from the start that history isn’t meant to be liked.

We started with foreshadowing of what was to come for Elsa Dutton, but there were questions about how it would lead to that.

Along the journey, many German immigrants died due to the harsh conditions of the trail to the west, and the reality of thieves and bandits regularly came up.

Even in 1923, there was a reminder that people aren’t always good. They’re not going to help those in need, and you have to protect yourself and the people you love.

However, 1923 wasn’t just about the ranch; Taylor Sheridan also addressed Residential Schools and what really happened in these places.

It made many people angry — some of them for the right reasons. We saw injustice, which sparked a need for many changes now, and upset. However, it was the reminder of what we did to people in the past and what we can’t keep repeating in the present.

The Last Kingdom

While there are many lessons from recent history to learn, some go back to what feels like the dawn of time.

The Last Kingdom, a series based on Bernard Cornwell’s books, tells the story of the Viking invasions of England and Britain’s struggle to become what it is known as today.

Through this, a Saxon boy finds himself a slave of the Danes, only to end up being adopted into the family and raised as one of them.

As an adult, he walks the line of Saxon and Dane, never really fitting in, with people forever reminding him of his shortcomings.

We see battles between Danish factions and fights among the British kingdoms. There is constant tension and betrayal, leading many to wonder whether Uhtred, son of Uhtred, will ever regain his ancestral land.

Reminding us that history isn’t meant to be liked, we get to see how people would be captured and sold into slavery, sometimes just for revenge or as a power play.

Even with the right people by your side, the loss can be great, but the rewards can also be greater.

Vikings

Along with The Last Kingdom, there is Vikings (and Vikings: Valhalla), which brings us another tale of the dark past.

This one is set before The Last Kingdom’s time period, with the Scandinavian people not even knowing that there was a land that would eventually be called Britain.

We saw how Viking factions would war with each other and fight for power, and we looked at how disease could devastate a town.

Let’s not forget betrayal, as families would be torn apart and at war with one another — or loss, as leaders would be struck down by a more powerful figure.

It was hard to know whom to trust, even among friends, when survival became important. Just look at Floki in Iceland as his group of explorers fought to survive the conditions.

There are times when the past can seem just a little bit easier because there’s less reliance on society than we see now, but these TV shows remind us that this isn’t quite the case.

Outlander

While Outlander is certainly a show for those who love romance or an epic love story, it’s also a series that reminds us of fairly recent history — especially compared to The Last Kingdom and Vikings.

We begin with reminders of Scotland’s downfall and the clans’ decimation after Culloden, and now we move into the fight for independence in the United States.

Along the way, there is betrayal, loss, financial hardship, imprisonment, and so much more.

What happens when you have someone obsessed with revenge? What about when someone is obsessed with a dream and is willing to kill to get that?

From the beginning, there were characters we came to hate, especially Black Jack Randall, and they routinely reminded us that nobody can really be trusted.

The only people you have in your corner are your family, and even then, mistakes can be made that lead you to be sold into slavery.

We see disease and loss in each season of the series, whether it’s a reminder of how dangerous childbirth was at the time or how diseases would spread quickly without modern-day vaccinations.

Then there are the people who will always do what they think is best for themselves.

Families want revenge for the death of their own or because they didn’t get their own way, willing to have people hanged for witchcraft or murder.

The more you look at Outlander, the more it becomes about history and the lessons to be learned, more than the romance.

The Terror

There were two seasons of The Terror, each focusing on a different supernatural evil, and both highlighted real evils, but the second season stood out the most.

How much did you know about internment camps before The Terror Season 2?

I can tell you that it’s not taught that much in schools, especially outside of North America. People don’t want to admit the darker sides of history, and it’s TV shows that bring out the truth.

To be honest, it wasn’t until visiting a museum in Ottawa that I realized internment camps were used during World War I, let alone the ones we’re now constantly told about from World War II.

People are evil to each other. Differences make people scared, and rather than trying to understand each other, it’s easier to segregate and destroy.

The Allied forces were no better than the Axis powers when you considered the camps, which brought starvation, slave labor, and the attempt to destroy a certain group of people.

When The Terror Season 2 was first released, I said that the evil spirit that was supposed to be the series’s scary element wasn’t the thing to worry about.

What humans do to each other was always the horror of the show.

It’s easy to want to forget about it — we want to believe that we were better than the enemy — but this part of history can’t be forgotten.

With so many repeating the past, we need TV shows that remind us history isn’t meant to be liked, so we can see the horrors people commit.

The Man in the High Castle

There are many shows that focus on World War II, and while The Man in the High Castle is an alternate history, there is still something to learn from it.

Sure, Germany and Japan didn’t win the war, but the elements of ruling over America in this alternate history were based on fact.

We saw how people were still killed by gas, and in this case, it was to personally hurt a person so that they wouldn’t keep protecting someone they loved.

There was a look at how the Germans would kill those with disabilities, viewing it as euthanization rather than extermination, which it was.

The Man in the High Castle even gave us a look at what people will do to survive, with a man who clearly was against the Nazis during the war turning into one as a way to protect his family.

We can view John Smith as a villain all we want, but there are plenty of people out there who would do the exact same thing, even knowing what we know now.

Then there are the freedom fighters and those who want the truth exposed, and there are countries continually fighting each other, attempting to gain full power.

So, yes, The Man in the High Castle is alternate history, but it’s still a lesson that we’re meant to learn from history.

Chernobyl

We don’t even have to look much further than the last few decades to see that history continually repeats itself.

Chernobyl offers that look.

The miniseries focuses on the very real tragedy that took place in 1986 — yes, it’s a disaster that will mark its 40th anniversary this year! That’s how recent it is.

We saw the realities of nuclear disasters, but it was also about the attempted cover-up.

Nobody wanted to admit that there had been a leak, as that would show failure and weakness. Yet some knew this couldn’t be covered up.

The public deserved to know the truth about why they were being evacuated from their homes. They deserved to know what was happening to them as they died from radiation poisoning.

People still haven’t been able to return home, as 40 years later, the Exclusion Zone remains dangerous.

Other disasters like this could happen again, and the only way to prevent them is to know what happened in the first place.

The fact that so many people attempted to cover it up and even tried to have people killed who wanted to release the information shows that people are only ever out for themselves.

In fact, if it wasn’t for a man taking his own life, there’s a chance that the full truth wouldn’t have made it out to the rest of the world.

The show will make you angry at the attempted cover-up, and it will make you sad to see that the warning signs were there before it happened.

It’s something that can’t be forgotten.

If We Learn From the Past, We Don’t Have to Repeat It

The past is what we’re meant to learn from, and TV ensures that by telling these stories. What other series can you think of that fit the bill?

Do you have series that remind you that history is meant to be learned from rather than liked? Let’s hear about them below!

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