Empires: Egypt's Golden Empire

The series "Empires: Egypt's Golden Empire" is interesting. It also has great looking visuals, nice locations shooting and lots of experts on ancient Egypt. So, it is a quality show. However, as a retired history teacher, I also noticed that the academic rigor of the show was often suspect. In other words, the show never really admitted that many of their conclusions were educated guesses--theories designed to try to explain gaps in information. Again and again, this episode talked as if it was all factual--which is a problem for history of times as old as 4000 to 5000 years ago. I really wish that the show had used words like 'perhaps', 'possibly' or 'it would seem'--and had been much more truthful in the process.

As for the rest of the show, it's a mixed bag. It often is very interesting and the production values are lovely. It is something folks will probably enjoy. But, the show is strange in many ways. While it talks about the 'Golden Empire', the film really bounces around a lot--highlighting some very important pharaohs as well as some very minor ones who just happen to better documented (such as Tutankhamen who did very little of importance in his short life as well as Nefertiti who, according to the show was 'pretty'). It also ignores HUGE chunks of ancient Egyptian history. So, for a HUGE fan of Egyptology, it's disappointing. For the average Joe, though, it's worth seeing even if the scholarship is occasionally disappointing.