WATCHING TROY FALL: THE PODCAST

This entire “anticipatory episode” of WATCHING TROY FALL is dedicated to history’s original weapon of mass destruction:  the Greek warlord Achilles.  Achilles is the most challenging character from the entire Trojan War Epic to “translate” to contemporary audiences.  The screenwriters (and actors) of TROY: FALL OF A CITY will encounter massive editorial and acting decisions on what to do with Achilles.  In this episode I address seven of those questions, namely:   Is Achilles magically immune from physical harm OR just a very skilled warrior?  Does Achilles have free will and agency, or is he merely a pawn of Fate and Destiny?   Is Achilles an man of honor, or an arrogant, self-centered, and childish egoist”?  Are Achilles’ repeated acts of absolutely horrific brutality something Netflix dares to feature in a television mini-series?   Does Achilles receive some sort of cinematic “redemption” before he dies?   How does Achilles die:  an arrow in the left heel, or in some more “pedestrian” way?   And finally, is Achilles straight, gay, bi, or something else entirely? And what “version” of Achilles will Netflix and the BBC dare to deliver to our television screens?

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In this “anticipatory episode” of WATCHING TROY FALL I explore the challenges that Netflix will face in reconciling the 3000 years old values and cultural mores of the original Trojan War Epic story, with the values and cultural mores of a 21st century television audience.  I identify the core challenge as: “What do you do if you are Netflix, when your lead characters in the story – in most cases lead characters that viewers are supposed to see as “noble and heroic” – behave in ways which today would get them thrown into jail (or at a minimum fired from Netflix)?”  I then address two specific attitudes – about war, and about women – where Netflix will struggle to remain faithful to the original epic, without entirely alienating or offending a contemporary audience.  Finally, I speculate on the “artistic decisions” that Netflix is likely to make in attempting to overcome these challenges.

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In this episode I first offer a quick primer on Aphrodite, mistakenly assumed to be the goddess of love, but actually the goddess of lust, sexual passion and the one-night stand.  I explore her origin story, and then her “erotic” and “aphrodisiac” powers.  And I quickly review the famous stories of The Apple of Discord and the Judgment of Paris, to explain why Aphrodite decides to “hook Paris up” with the hottest babe in human history.  Finally, I turn to three possible “takes” that Netflix will have to choose between, in telling the story of Paris and Helen’s first encounter.  And I explain why I predict that Netflix will run kicking and screaming from telling viewers the truth about Helen, Paris and Aphrodite, in their version of the story.

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In this episode I first offer a quick primer on the Olympian Gods that dominate the Trojan War Epic story.  Gods that – unlike our modern monotheistic gods – were neither omnipotent, omnipresent, or, for that matter, particularly “good”, “moral” or even interested in we human beings.  Then I explore the myriad challenges that Netflix will face in bringing big gods to little television screens.  How do you make a human actor/actress “look” like God?  What level of “agency” do you allow the gods to play in the overall plot?  And how do you portray gods that, in the original story, are sometimes “glorious and god-like”, but other times “petty, mean-spirited and immoral”?

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In this inaugural episode of WATCHING TROY FALL I lay out my master plan for the podcast serial:  a series of “Anticipatory Episodes” followed by eight “Viewing Episodes” (see the ABOUT PAGE for all the details).  Then I dive into a quick primer of the BIG 5 background questions that NETFLIX/BBC will have had to get their heads around, before creating TROY: FALL OF A CITY.  Was there really a city called Troy?  And was there really a Trojan War?  And if yes, then who fought in that war?  And what was the war really about?  And how do we – 3000 years later – know about that war today?

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