Main Page - Shows What You Know

Welcome back to the messiah mill! This week, we are tackling a nice, easy, totally non controversial topic: the historical Jesus. Simple, right? What could possibly go wrong?

We are peeling back two millennia of church doctrine, fan art, and bad translations to look at what the early sources (canonical, apocryphal, and Roman) actually say about Jesus of Nazareth. Was he the literal incarnation of the Divine, an apocalyptic prophet predicting the immediate end of the world, or just an extraordinarily charismatic street preacher in an era running on pure, unadulterated credulity?

Its time to separate Gospel from truth.

The post Life of Brian (1979) | Jesus Christ (33 CE) – 2/2 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

Is he the Messiah, or is he just a very naughty boy? This week, the lads dive headfirst into Monty Python’s 1979 masterpiece, Life of Brian. Does the satire still hold up over forty years later? Is it the towering work of comedic genius the Pythons claim, or is it just an excuse to write Latin grammar jokes on a wall?

More importantly, what about this Jesus guy anyway? Was he a historical reality, or the ultimate urban legend of the Ancient Mediterranean?

We are setting the stage by stepping into 1st century Judea, a glorious, boiling cauldron where religious fervor, Roman bureaucracy, and geopolitical chaos collide. The Levant in the 1st century CE was the ultimate crossroads of the ancient world, where Hellenistic culture, Jewish tradition, and Roman military might smashed together to create a recipe for total madness.

Join us as we sort through the mess of meandering messianic maxims!

Support the show at patreon.com/reelhistorypodcast, where you can also get early access to part two.

The post Life of Brian (1979) | ROMANI ITE DOMUM (1 CE) – 1/2 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has finally arrived and we’ve got a lot to say about it. We start with the film itself — what works, what doesn’t, and how this new adaptation compares with Homer’s epic poem. Then we get into the good stuff, like how a simple concept like hospitality helped spread Greek influence across the Mediterranean. Why was mistreating a guest not merely rude, but potentially a serious offence against the gods? We explore how the concept of xenia becomes a way of defining who is “civilised” and who can be treated as a barbarian — and how the Odyssey tests the dangers of both breaking and trusting it.

From there, we step back and ask the bigger question: who and when was this Homer guy, anyway? We journey from Mycenaean Greece and the Late Bronze Age to the mysterious Greek Dark Ages and the emergence of the Archaic Greek world. Along the way, we untangle how much of the world described in the Odyssey reflects a genuine memory of the Bronze Age and how much belongs to the society that eventually wrote it all down. Which brings us to the Late Bronze Age Collapse that Nolan heavily alludes to – what do we actually know about it, and how might the collapse have survived in Greek cultural memory?

Grab your oar, avoid the sirens, and join us as we sail into the real history behind The Odyssey.

The post The Odyssey (2026) | Bronze Age Collapse (1200 BCE) first appeared on Shows What You Know.

Wonder Man has officially been renewed for a second season — which caught us off guard given how quietly Disney seemed to dump the first one onto streaming. We revisit why the show worked so well for us.

JURY DUTY: COMPANY RETREAT: The comedy may be a little shakier this time around, but the real magic remains watching an ordinary person navigate increasingly bizarre situations while somehow continuing to be… a somewhat decent human being.

YOUNG SHERLOCK: A ridiculous steampunky prequel featuring bomb defusals, penny-farthing chase scenes and Moriarty bromance. Surprisingly charming in its idiocy! We also squeeze in some thoughts on One Piece season 2.

BEEF SEASON 2: Jim dives back into Beef and why turning the series into an anthology may have been the smartest possible move.

THE OTHER BENNET SISTER: Jakob champions The Other Bennet Sister, a BBC adaptation that takes the “boring” sister from Pride and Prejudice and gives her a heartfelt coming-of-age Regency drama.

00:00 Intro and news

The post Young Sherlock is Completely Ridiculous | SWYK 042 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

(This is part two of a double episode – listen to part one here. We also just released our Guillotine Special bonus episode at patreon.com/reelhistorypodcast Join for as little as 2.5 EUR and get access to dozens of bonus eps!)

The powdered parties are over, the pastry crumbs swept aside, and the gates of Versailles are about to be kicked in. Join us for the explosive second half of our Marie Antoinette double bill as we leave the perfumed salons of the palace and step into the hungry, furious, rapidly radicalising France that Sofia Coppola’s film mostly keeps beyond the frame. If episode one was all silk slippers and scandal sheets, episode two is bread riots and bayonets!

Having charted Marie Antoinette’s rise from teenage archduchess to the most notorious woman in France, we now turn to the crisis consuming the kingdom itself. Why did one of Europe’s richest and most powerful states collapse into bankruptcy, paralysis and revolt? How did the ancien régime of privilege and feudal dues stagger into the constitutional age?  We’ll trace the great turning points of the Revolution, including the famous Women’s March on Versailles that dragged the royal family from their gilded isolation and into the uneasy captivity of Paris. From there, we follow two years of humiliation, suspicion and dwindling authority before the fateful attempted escape to Varennes — a bungled flight that shattered what little trust remained between crown and country.

As Europe’s monarchies close ranks and revolutionary France lurches into war, the stakes grow bloodier still. In the middle of it all stands Marie Antoinette: widowed, demonised and facing the same merciless machinery that consumed so many others. Was she a vain symbol of a rotten system, a stubborn political actor who helped doom the monarchy, or a tragic scapegoat caught in forces far beyond her control? Join us as we sort fact from legend one last time and follow Marie Antoinette from the Hall of Mirrors to the guillotine.

Sources

‘Marie Antoinette -The Journey” – Antonia Fraser

The post Marie Antoinette (2006) | Vive la Révolution (1789) – 2/2 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

(This is part one of a two-part episode. Join patreon.com/reelhistorypodcast to support the show and access part two immediately!)

Powder your wig, lace-up your corset and try not to lose your head as we cordially invite you to dine at Versailles and feast on Sofia Coppola ‘Marie Antoinette’ (2006)! Kirsten Dunst mesmerises as the divisive Habsburg who took 18th century France by storm when her marriage (in 1770) to the future Louis XVI sealed an alliance between erstwhile continental rivals, Austria and France.

Over two roller-coaster episodes, we seek to do justice to this highly contentious character and fashion icon who continues to split opinion to this day. Did Marie Antoinette really deserve her reputation as a perverted, oblivious Austrian toff whose lavish lifestyle earned her the nickname ‘Madame Déficit’? Or was she simply a concerned mother who fell victim to fevered, dehumanising propaganda which made her a convenient scapegoat for all the ills of pre-revolutionary France?

Join us in this first episode as we sort fact from fiction and chart her descent from carefree, youthful princess to care-worn, scandal-ridden bête noire by the eve of the storming of the Bastille (1789). Mark will kick us off with a potted history of the Habsburg royal dynasty whose spider web of influence (and distinctive jaw!) dominated Europe for centuries. Then, we will learn how the 14 year old Marie Antoinette adjusted to life under the coercive control of the French court which resembled a Disneyland for the nobility dominated by Madame Etiquette. We will see how the overwhelming pressure to produce an heir and a daily life ruled by stifling tediousness would lead Marie Antoinette to seek solace in distraction and possibly the comfort of friends like Swedish stud-muffin Count Axel Von Fersen! However, this would only sow the seeds of her unpopularity, as such secretiveness would provide ample fodder for the propagandists of Paris who churned out endless outrageous allegations against her.

Likewise, we will see how her apparent penchant for gambling, cakes and shoes would make it only to easy for others to portray her as a spendthrift. Such a reputation for selfish obliviousness would only be further compounded by her cosplaying as a peasant in her idyllic ‘Queen’s hamlet’ while millions suffered severe poverty outside the gates of her gilded cage. All this disastrous PR would then be crowned off by the Shakespearean farce of the ‘Diamond Necklace Affair’ (1785). These factors all combined to ensure that Marie Antoinette was derogatorily known as ‘L’Autrichienne’ by the time the blades of the first guillotines were being sharpened.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves! Join us next time as we explore the absolute state of France and follow the momentous revolutionary events that would become intertwined with Marie Antoinette’s life and ultimate death.

Sources

‘Marie Antoinette -The Journey” – Antonia Fraser

‘The Ancien Régime and the Revolution’ – Alexis De Tocqueville

‘Citizens – A chronicle of the French Revolution’ – Simon Schama

‘The History of Modern France’ – Jonathan Fenby

The post Marie Antoinette (2006) | Versailles Vibes (1770) – 1/2 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

Who needs a show like The Studio when you have real life? Much like an episode of the Hollywood satire, the Buffy reboot/sequel show had all of it’s drama play out in the press as it was announced that the much publicized show would not be picked up. A version of the script leaked and both sides have dropped some heaters in the press. Let’s get into it! We have some thoughts, we have read the script and much more.

We also discuss:

Nirvanna The Band The Show (The Movie) – Jim has recently seen the Nirvanna The Band The Movie which has led him to go back and watch both the web series and their Viceland show. He is obsessed and fully on board. Matt Johnson is a king.

Peaky Blinders – Another show that has a major motion picture release is on Jakob’s radar! Jakob delves into his binge of the Cillian Murphy hit, Peaky Blinds in the midst of the release  Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man.

The post Buffy The Reboot The Sequel The Cancellation | SWYK 041 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

The streaming wars take another turn! After weeks of headlines about Netflix acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, the situation has flipped again — and it now looks like Netflix has bowed out while Paramount pushes forward with its mega-merger. We break down what happened, why Netflix is reportedly walking away with a $2.8 billion breakup fee, and what a combined Paramount–Warner company would actually look like. (Spoiler: a lot more debt, a lot more “synergies,” and a lot fewer employees.)

Then we get into the shows:

WONDER MAN: One of the strongest and strangest things Marvel has put out in years! Of course we’re easy marks for a Hollywood satire but it’s undeniable that this is one of the most interesting things we’ve seen out of the MCU in quite a while.

SCRUBS 2026: Next we check in on the Scrubs revival with the first two episodes of the new season. This new show is actually a continuation that seems to be doing the exact same thing it did fifteen years ago – which might be exactly what fans want, or exactly the problem, depending on if you’re Jim or Jakob!

A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS: After six episodes, the verdict is clear – this smaller, grounded Game of Thrones story absolutely nails what made the early seasons of the original show work. A wandering knight, a tournament, a handful of political intrigues, and time spent on the ground floor of Westeros — sometimes that’s all you need.

Maybe TV isn’t completely doomed after all.

The post Dunk & Egg & Scrubs & Wonder Man | SWYK 040 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

It’s the end of an era — again. We wrap up Stranger Things once and for all, digging into the second half and finale of season 5, talking nostalgia, overexplanation, retcons on retcons, fake-out danger, and D&D – the Duffer brothers, that is. There are things we liked and a lot we didn’t!

Then we switch worlds and check in on the premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (aka The Adventures of Dunk & Egg), the latest *Game of Thrones* spinoff — and one that immediately feels different. Smaller scale, dirtier boots, and maybe some clearer storytelling? We break down why following one knight through one tournament might be exactly what this universe needed, and why this first episode gets more done in 40 minutes than most prestige fantasy does in an hour.

It’s a farewell to Hawkins, a cautious welcome back to Westeros, and a reminder that sometimes less really is more.

The post Stranger Things… More Like Boring Things | SWYK 039 first appeared on Shows What You Know.

Come with us down the pub. This is our longest episode ever – which probably isn’t surprising given that we live in Ireland, the subject matter is close to home, and, yes, a few pints of Guinness helped lubricate proceedings.

In this episode of Reel History, we use Netflix’s House of Guinness as a jumping-off point to talk about something much bigger: Ireland in the long shadow of empire. Creator Steven Knight – the man behind Peaky Blinders and, of course, Who Wants to be a Millionare, I guess? – has put together a Victorian era melodrama that almost works as a standalone miniseries, even if it ends on a frustrating cliffhanger that’s clearly hoping for a second season that may never come.

We break down what the show gets right, what it gets wrong, and where it becomes aggressively ahistorical. House of Guinness prioritises sex, scandal, and drama over historical clarity – and that’s a valid creative choice! However, it doesn’t always feel like a choice, and at times the series falls short. For example, the rebellious “Fenians” are central to the story but hardly explained. Why are they so angry? Why are they willing to risk everything for independence? The show largely declines to answer, stripping away centuries of context and leaving viewers with the impression that Irish nationalism emerged out of nowhere. So we step in to fill the gap!

To understand 1868, we rewind and talk land theft, penal laws, cultural erasure, and a society systematically dismantled over centuries. We explain why the effects of British rule in Ireland aren’t “ancient history,” but rather still present today, and of course we have to touch on the Great Famine – or rather, the fact that there was no famine (in the way it’s usually presented). We unpack how starvation was weaponised as a policy and Ireland continued to export food under armed guard while its population died. When House of Guinness gestures vaguely toward “the poor” without reckoning with why that poverty exists, it muddies the central conflict it’s trying to dramatise.

But we also chat about more cheerful topics, like beer! Starting with the first (of many) Arthur Guinness, the empire built by Benjamin Guinness, and the four heirs wrestling with money, power, and loyalty in a country on the brink of rebellion. We trace the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the currents of resistance beneath polite society, and follow those threads forward toward 1916.

Jaysus, we’ve quite a bit to get through, don’t we? And no wonder, because this is a conversation about how Irish history is framed, caricatured, or avoided on screen, and why that still matters. If you want to focus on drama instead of history, fair enough – but if you’re going to set a story in colonial Ireland, you need to understand the fire you’re brewing beneath the stout.

Pull up a stool. Wait for your pint to settle. And let’s talk about Ireland.

The post House of Guinness (2025) | Brewing Rebellion (1868) first appeared on Shows What You Know.