If you’re looking for a taste of real life in your viewing habits, look no further than Netflix. The streamer is home to a variety of documentaries and dramas that bring vivid eras of history to the home screen. Whether it’s Queen Cleopatra or the former HBO series Band of Brothers , there’s something for everyone.
History Buffs: Band of Brothers
Scroll down for a better look at these must-stream titles available on Netflix now.
Alexander the Great lived a lot in 33 years, and these six episodes cover all the highlights of the king of ancient Greece, who ruled more than three centuries BC. "Alexander was the greatest military mind of all time, and at the same time he was a poet, a philosopher, a scientist, an inventor and an empire builder," says Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones of Cardiff University in the series. "It's no wonder that we're still obsessed with him after 2,000 years." The series weaves his story through drama (starring Buck Braithwaite, above, as Alexander), education and excavation, as a leading archaeologist discovers fascinating ruins in modern-day Alexandria that offer more clues to the life of the ancient man.
In the wake of Oppenheimer’s success, this documentary delves into the guilty conscience of another of the atomic bomb’s many fathers: Albert Einstein. “I made… one big mistake in my life,” says the famed thinker, seen in both archival footage and docudrama scenes played by Aidan McArdle. “If I had known the Germans weren’t going to make the bomb… I wouldn’t have been part of opening that Pandora’s box.” We see the building of the ultimate weapon through the eyes of the tortured genius, who fled the Nazis only to be confronted with startling questions: Was the bomb a price worth paying for peace?