History/Western by Rating, a list by Mark Gauci

9.4

/583988/

91

/18794/

85

/3970/

4.7

/204891/

94

/34/

97

87

/28/

age 16+

Drawn from interviews with survivors of Easy Company, as well as their journals and letters, Band of Brothers chronicles the experiences of these men from paratrooper training in Georgia through the end of the war. As an elite rifle company parachuting into Normandy early on D-Day morning, participants in the Battle of the Bulge, and witness to the horrors of war, the men of Easy knew extraordinary bravery and extraordinary fear - and became the stuff of legend. Based on Stephen E. Ambrose's acclaimed book of the same name.

87

8.4

/15008/

81

/573/

79

/108/

4.2

/4285/

100

/36/

95

83

/17/

3.5

age 14+

Twentysomething Miep Gies didn't hesitate when her boss Otto Frank came to her and asked her to hide his family from the Nazis during World War II. For the next two years, Miep, her husband Jan, and the other helpers watched over the eight souls in hiding in the Secret Annex. And it was Miep who found Anne’s Diary and kept it safe so Otto, the only one of the eight who survived, could later share it with the world as one of the most powerful accounts of the Holocaust.

87

8.6

/237429/

85

/9540/

84

/1580/

4.4

/123025/

99

/110/

85

85

/41/

3.5

age 16+

In Japan in the year 1600, at the dawn of a century-defining civil war, Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.

87

8.8

/156199/

85

/4641/

82

/968/

96

/85/

89

86

/27/

3.5

age 15+

Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.

87

8.6

/127045/

86

/5606/

81

/894/

92

/103/

95

85

/61/

age 18+

The story of the early days of Deadwood, South Dakota; woven around actual historic events with most of the main characters based on real people. Deadwood starts as a gold mining camp and gradually turns from a lawless wild-west community into an organized wild-west civilized town. The story focuses on the real-life characters Seth Bullock and Al Swearengen.

86

8.3

/21996/

80

/1024/

76

/150/

4.4

/23368/

96

/45/

92

91

/20/

age 15+

The unvarnished truth of life as a doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology.

87

86

8.7

/29246/

Trakt

79

/404/

79

/202/

4.2

/8847/

98

/43/

94

age 14+

A pair of longtime friends and former Texas Rangers crave one last adventure before hanging-up their spurs. After stealing over a thousand head of cattle from rustlers south of the border, they recruit an unlikely crew of hands to drive the herd 3,000 miles north to the grasslands of Montana.

85

8.1

/137906/

80

/4741/

80

/888/

4.1

/44366/

98

/81/

95

80

/29/

3.5

age 17+

As Jimmy Keene begins a 10-year prison sentence, he gets an incredible offer: If he can elicit a confession from suspected killer Larry Hall, Jimmy will be freed. Completing this mission becomes the challenge of a lifetime.

88

85

8.8

/21949/

83

/319/

78

/126/

4.3

/3916/

100

/24/

93

Acclaimed blackly comic historical drama series. Set amidst a web of power, corruption and lies, it chronicles the reigns of the Roman emperors - Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and finally Claudius.

85

8.7

/519073/

84

/18320/

80

/3133/

89

/111/

95

77

/43/

age 18+

A gritty chronicle of the war against Colombia's infamously violent and powerful drug cartels.

85

8.6

/18623/

86

/534/

83

/160/

Satirical sitcom set in the office of a UK Cabinet minister, Jim Hacker MP, who struggles with Civil Service bureaucracy and political machinations as he tries to get on with government business.

85

8.4

/101930/

79

/4492/

75

/1021/

97

/93/

94

age 15+

An anthology series centered around some of history's most famous criminal investigations.

85

8.5

/185060/

82

/7280/

82

/1892/

91

/45/

95

78

/15/

age 15+

A show of heroic deeds and epic battles with a thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity. Combining real historical figures and events with fictional characters, it is the story of how a people combined their strength under one of the most iconic kings of history in order to reclaim their land for themselves and build a place they call home.

85

8.4

/56301/

82

/3118/

79

/486/

92

/94/

96

78

/54/

age 17+

Set in downtown New York in 1900, 'The Knick' is centered on the Knickerbocker Hospital and its staff, notably Dr. John Thackery, the hospital's brilliant chief surgeon who pushes medicine's boundaries, pioneering new procedures despite a severe drug addiction.

84

8.4

/15619/

79

/599/

79

/69/

3.9

/3396/

95

/20/

91

80

/8/

age 13+

The story of one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British legal history, where hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system.

84

8.2

/35823/

80

/1544/

77

/170/

100

/25/

86

79

/13/

age 16+

The dramatised account of how the world’s greatest Special Forces unit, the SAS, was formed under extraordinary circumstances in the darkest days of World War Two.

84

8.4

/63686/

83

/2707/

79

/480/

4.3

/15828/

86

/42/

93

80

/27/

The first 40 days of the war in Iraq as seen through the eyes of an elite group of U.S. Marines who spearheaded the invasion along with an embedded Rolling Stone reporter. A vivid account of the soldiers and of the forces that guided them in an often-improvised initiative.

84

8.5

/633024/

84

/28937/

80

/7432/

93

/94/

88

74

/41/

age 15+

The adventures of Ragnar Lothbrok, the greatest hero of his age. The series tells the sagas of Ragnar's band of Viking brothers and his family, as he rises to become King of the Viking tribes. As well as being a fearless warrior, Ragnar embodies the Norse traditions of devotion to the gods. Legend has it that he was a direct descendant of Odin, the god of war and warriors.

84

8.3

/142036/

83

/6579/

77

/2457/

4.2

/47055/

89

/46/

91

86

/32/

Track the intertwined real-life stories of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge – across the vast canvas of the Pacific Theater during World War II. A companion piece to the 2001 miniseries Band of Brothers.

84

8.4

/52199/

82

/2758/

80

/633/

93

/41/

96

72

/15/

age 16+

A gritty, action-packed crime drama set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century. The series follows Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who immigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances, and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful tongs.

84

8.6

/14487/

85

/438/

83

/131/

James Hacker MP the Government's bumbling minister for Administrative Affairs is propelled along the corridors of power to the very pinnacle of politics - No. 10. Could this have possibly have been managed by his trusted Permanent Private Secretary, the formidably political Sir Humphrey Appleby who must move to the “Top Job” in Downing Street to support him, together with his much put upon PPS Bernard Wolley. What could possibly go wrong?

83

8.6

/277733/

82

/9440/

82

/2274/

81

/553/

92

78

/181/

age 15+

The gripping, decades-spanning inside story of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Prime Ministers who shaped Britain's post-war destiny. The Crown tells the inside story of two of the most famous addresses in the world – Buckingham Palace and 10 Downing Street – and the intrigues, love lives and machinations behind the great events that shaped the second half of the 20th century. Two houses, two courts, one Crown.

83

8.2

/17373/

80

/808/

77

/201/

4.1

/6922/

92

/73/

93

78

/24/

age 15+

Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, 1832. Anne Lister attempts to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of her plan is to help the fate of her own family - by taking a wife.

83

8.2

/18081/

76

/609/

74

/140/

4.1

/4646/

99

/81/

82

87

/38/

age 14+

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer, and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?

82

8.2

/15390/

78

/730/

74

/92/

4.2

/11241/

94

/52/

87

80

/23/

age 15+

Through the eyes of various Irish Republican Army (IRA) members, explore the extremes some people will go to in the name of their beliefs, the way a deeply divided society can suddenly tip over into armed conflict, the long shadow of radical violence for both victims and perpetrators, and the emotional and psychological costs of a code of silence.

82

7.7

/186331/

75

/7138/

76

/1045/

4.0

/602704/

99

/70/

80

88

/18/

age 16+

When a struggling comedian shows one act of kindness to a vulnerable woman, it sparks a suffocating obsession which threatens to wreck both their lives.

82

7.8

/46941/

79

/2429/

76

/318/

95

/76/

95

72

/31/

age 15+

After trading in the seemingly charmed life of a gentleman for one of a swashbuckling buccaneer, Stede Bonnet becomes captain of the pirate ship Revenge. Struggling to earn the respect of his potentially mutinous crew, Stede’s fortunes change after a fateful run-in with the infamous Captain Blackbeard. Stede and crew attempt to get their ship together and survive life on the high seas.

82

8.1

/62935/

78

/2676/

80

/1099/

96

/142/

84

78

/50/

age 15+

A genre-bending, anti-historical ride through 18th century Russia following the rise of Catherine the Nothing to Catherine the Great and her explosive relationship with husband Peter, the emperor of Russia.

82

8.0

/12404/

80

/605/

75

/93/

88

/61/

89

80

/34/

age 14+

A behind-the-scenes drama and espionage thriller in Cold War-era England that centers on a journalist, a producer, and an anchorman for an investigative news programme.

83

82

8.5

/15706/

81

/485/

81

/153/

4.1

/10559/

85

/11/

Frustrated at a new moderate Conservative government and deprived of a promotion to a senior position, chief whip Francis Urquhart prepares a meticulous plot to bring down the Prime Minister then to take his place.

81

7.7

/14222/

76

/661/

73

/58/

3.8

/9136/

90

/68/

85

80

/31/

3.5

age 15+

The story of James Garfield, who rose from obscurity to become America's 20th President — and Charles Guiteau, the man who assassinated him.

81

7.9

/23166/

78

/1125/

78

/143/

90

/41/

90

73

/21/

age 15+

After impulsively joining the U.S. Marine Corps, a bullied teen finds new purpose — and unexpected brotherhood — with his motley team of fellow recruits.

81

8.7

/158080/

83

/4997/

82

/842/

4.2

/17383/

89

/27/

78

69

/12/

age 15+

Follow the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. A stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in America’s promised land — Montana.

82

81

8.3

/14427/

77

/394/

72

/53/

96

/56/

89

76

/27/

age 14+

Through Julia Child’s life and her singular joie de vivre, the series explores a pivotal time in American history – the emergence of public television as a new social institution, feminism and the women's movement, the nature of celebrity and America's cultural evolution.

81

7.9

/33230/

76

/1280/

74

/258/

4.0

/11887/

89

/62/

93

78

/27/

age 15+

The stranger-than-fiction account of a prison break in upstate New York in the summer of 2015, which spawned a massive manhunt for two convicted murderers who were aided in their escape by a married female prison employee with whom they both became sexually entangled.

81

IMDb 27

8.3

/378518/

82

/25160/

75

/2446/

85

/264/

85

81

/143/

age 17+

CIA officer Carrie Mathison is tops in her field despite being bipolar, which makes her volatile and unpredictable. With the help of her long-time mentor Saul Berenson, Carrie fearlessly risks everything, including her personal well-being and even sanity, at every turn.

81

7.9

/12627/

75

/785/

70

/187/

4.0

/7598/

96

/69/

85

/33/

age 14+

Mayor Nick Wasicsko took office in 1987 during Yonkers' worst crisis when federal courts ordered public housing to be built in the white, middle class side of town, dividing the city in a bitter battle fueled by fear, racism, murder and politics.

81

8.0

/167574/

77

/7775/

77

/1046/

3.9

/27623/

93

/71/

84

79

/12/

age 16+

A troubled war veteran is assigned to protect a controversial politician who may be the target of a terror plot.

81

8.3

/43215/

81

/2003/

77

/313/

88

/39/

92

68

/21/

age 14+

A Wyoming sheriff rebuilds his life and career following the death of his wife. Based on the “Walt Longmire” series of mystery novels written by best-selling author Craig Johnson.

81

7.6

/41225/

74

/2058/

72

/334/

3.9

/22096/

99

/82/

88

81

/30/

age 15+

Based on the true story of Grace Marks, a housemaid and immigrant from Ireland who was imprisoned in 1843, perhaps wrongly, for the murder of her employer Thomas Kinnear. Grace claims to have no memory of the murder yet the facts are irrefutable. A decade after, Dr. Simon Jordan tries to help Grace recall her past.

81

80

7.7

/7246/

74

/334/

75

/79/

4.0

/2691/

94

/31/

85

78

/14/

3.5

age 15+

The true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite.

80

7.7

/16600/

75

/962/

75

/191/

3.8

/3557/

86

/35/

86

74

/19/

3.5

age 15+

When the floodwaters rose, power failed, and heat soared, exhausted caregivers at a New Orleans hospital were forced to make profound, heart-wrenching decisions.

84

80

8.2

/7843/

77

/289/

74

/76/

98

/42/

82

89

/11/

A series of British television films featuring William Shakespeare's History Plays.

80

8.1

/29264/

77

/952/

75

/231/

4.0

/14358/

88

/25/

87

72

/11/

age 14+

The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.

80

7.9

/15371/

75

/553/

76

/138/

85

/21/

93

75

/15/

age 14+

The Bletchley Circle follows the journey of four ordinary women with extraordinary skills that helped to end World War II. Set in 1952, Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean have returned to their normal lives, modestly setting aside the part they played in producing crucial intelligence, which helped the Allies to victory and shortened the war. When Susan discovers a hidden code behind an unsolved murder she is met by skepticism from the police. She quickly realises she can only begin to crack the murders and bring the culprit to justice with her former friends. The Bletchley Circle paints a vivid portrait of post-war Britain in this fictional tale of unsung heroes.

80

7.7

/10338/

76

/873/

70

/128/

91

/45/

90

79

/32/

age 14+

Set against the backdrop of the greatest clandestine race against time in the history of science with the mission to build the world's first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Flawed scientists and their families attempt to co-exist in a world where secrets and lies infiltrate every aspect of their lives.

80

8.2

/89696/

78

/3805/

77

/663/

3.9

/25377/

83

/80/

85

75

/25/

age 17+

A ruthless outlaw terrorizes the West in search of a former member of his gang, who’s found a new life in a quiet town populated only by women.

80

8.1

/66554/

78

/2702/

75

/500/

3.9

/10675/

96

/34/

83