The Who Was? Show

My initial response to this series was that I kind of hated it. However, my almost ten-year-old son positively loved it, so I started paying closer attention to it. I'd say it's geared toward tweens and older. After giving it a fair chance, I discovered the writing is actually quite intelligent, and the humor causes my son to watch them over and over... and over. In just days, he's started weaving information about Marie Curie, Queen Elizabeth I, and others into conversation and speaking intelligently about them. These are people of which he previously knew little or nothing. This show won't be for everyone because of its quirky nature, but I personally hope they continue for many seasons.

...and educational too. I enjoyed watching it with my family. Family shows are hard to come by these days. We enjoyed the humor and information.

I enjoy the puns and clever jokes. I appreciate the Tidbits character providing lots of little facts that I didn't know. But man, the Benjamin Franklin and Gandhi episode seemed to have a heavy political statement about how stupid the founding fathers of the US were and how wise and perfect Gandhi was. The episode with Isaac Newton and Amelia Earhart was one of the most sexist things I have seen against men. Can you imagine if a man suddenly stopped a female narrator and said "I will not have some faceless woman narrate my life, let me get an awesome modern man to do it instead"? Well, that's what Amelia Earhart does to the male narrator. They continue to put Amelia on a pedestal while making Isaac Newton look like the most selfish person who ever lived. I've been watching this with my son and I'm concerned that he might get a message that his gender is lesser to females even though he's getting a fun history lesson.

My boys (ages 8 & 12) LOVE this show! They have watched each episode multiple times and have enjoyed history more than they ever have before. Super fun approach to learning about history and human rights! Can't wait for more seasons!

Exactly what age will depend on your child and what they have been exposed to. There is nothing gory, and the analogy to SNL for kids is fairly accurate. But there is an appropriate age for each child to cover, albeit lightly so, topics such as pillaging and inequality. The show made my 10 and 11 year old children laugh and left them wanting to know more about some of the historical figures. They looked up a few facts to see if they were really true. I would have liked to see the show place the featured historic figures on a timeline at the end, since they often compare and contrast figures from vastly different time periods. Overall it is a fun show to inspire learning about history.