This summer, I enjoyed revisiting episodes of Bridgerton as well as a parallel Spanish version set in 1880s Spain called Manual para Senoritas. There's now a new series set in the United States called The Gilded Age. These programs show an alternate vision of history, where people of color are simply part of society from the very wealthy to the very humble and where gay and lesbian characters live out their lives as side stories. It's a thought experiment to help storytelling, very much in the same vein as setting Shakespeare's Richard III in 1930s England. It allowed people from different backgrounds to see themselves on the screen beyond traditional stereotypical roles. I hope they keep exploring these types of storylines.
I also worry that, in time, viewers will lose sight that these shows are parody and not reality, giving a distorted sense of what the past was really like. They will forget that the 1800s was a time of brutal slavery and segregation. Same-sex relations resulted in prison time or worse. The ladies parading in elegant gowns couldn't vote. Don’t get me started on the health conditions.
There's a precedent for this concern. It's amazing the number of people who seem to think that John Wayne movies are documentaries that accurately show what life was like in the Old West. They then dismiss those who want to present a more accurate retelling of the past as woke revisionists who distort history.
So let's enjoy these alternate depictions of history but just remember that they are, in fact, alternatives to what actually happened.