Historical Reenactments

This isn't really about one thing so much as it is about a genre of things. Specifically, the History Channel, and more generally, historical documentaries. Let's get the general thing out of the way first.

When you have perfectly good archival footage of an event, in particular a battle, using historical reenactments to "heighten the drama" is lazy. It's also disrespectful to history. There have been a spate of "reenactment" documentaries recently which purport to show new information about battles, or to show the battle in new ways, but in the end, it's basically a lazy movie. I am completely in favor of the use of computer imagery to show maps, movement, diagrams, models of technology, etc. But if you're doing a film about the battle of Tarawa, for instance, where there was a large body of footage from said battle extant, and you use reenactments, you're just being lazy.

That being said, I don't dislike reenactments when there is no extant footage or images. The Civil War, obviously, doesn't have any film. The Roman period doesn't even have any photos. Reenactments can serve a very useful purpose, and be pulled off successfully. I tend to prefer more understated reenactments, but still, if there's nothing to show but recreation, show the recreation... or write a book, which honestly is an avenue not pursued often enough.

However, there's a bigger problem I have: history shows that aren't history. We've got loggers and ice-road truckers and other reality garbage, and while they may be perfectly acceptable television viewing, they're not history. I know the History Channel says that it's history in the making, but really, it's just that they want to show things like all the other "learning" channels. Which means mostly crappy reality TV. The actual Learning Channel seems to show nothing but shows about weddings and shows about fashion. I'm not sure how those relate to learning, really.

PBS could be the sole bastion of actual good documentary/educational programming, except they spend far too much time with children's programming. There are many, many shows out there for kids which are supposed to be educational, and I guess the fact that they aren't simply advertisements for collectible toys is something, but not much. Then there are the hours of pledge drives. And eventually, you're left with another not-too-good outlet for "edutainment."

I like edutainment just fine, I just question its value. So I've complained about pretty much everything I wanted to now, and this post has become a mongrel incompetence, and I'm okay with that.