Period pieces, like sci-fi, fantasy, or horror, allow us to experience relatable stories at a distance, acting as “comfort viewing” while also allowing creators and viewers alike to explore meaningful themes and issues. And hey, Xennials! Shows set during your elementary or high school years count as period pieces now.
Enjoy crumbling into dust as you watch the shows below, all of which are available on Hulu.
SHŌGUN (Drama, Limited Series)
Setting: Feudal Japan (1600)
If you prefer your old-timey sword fighting and political intrigue based more on actual history and less on Game-of-Thrones-y fantasy, the new limited series Shōgun should be right up your alley.
Based on the historical fiction novel of the same name by James Clavell, Shōgun tells the story of three characters navigating the world and politics of Feudal Japan very differently, all of whom are based on real historical figures.
John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) is an English sailor who gets shipwrecked in Japan and ends up being redefined by life in this new place. Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) is a powerful daimyo (feudal lord) working to keep his political rivals at bay. And Lady Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) is a highborn woman fluent in multiple languages, but whose dishonorable family history forces her to fight to prove her worth. The collision of these three very different people is the engine that propels the drama in this 10-episode limited series.
BLACK CAKE (Drama, Limited Series)
Setting: Present Day/1960s (UK, Jamaica, California)
Based on the best-selling novel by Charmaine Wilkerson, Black Cake is the story of two adult siblings, Byron (Ashley Thomas) and Benny (Adrienne Warren) who, when their mother dies, must piece together their family history with nothing but a mysterious voice recording and a family recipe for black cake.
While half the show takes place in the present-day, the other half that handles the mother’s youth is set during the late 1960s. If you enjoy stories that juxtapose the present with the past in order to illuminate their themes, Black Cake is a great choice.
PEN15 (Comedy, 2 seasons)
Setting: 2000-01 (Florida)
Yes, the year 2000 is now firmly in “period piece” territory. 2019’s Pen15 found 31-year-old creators and stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle playing fictionalized versions of themselves at 13 years old surrounded by actual teenage co-stars.
The show is hilarious and poignant. Whether you actually came of age in the early aughts, or you’re a young person who’s fascinated by Turn of the Century Fiction (here’s 40-something me crumbling to dust), you will find protagonists Maya and Anna painfully relatable. Their friendship is real and beautiful to watch, and the show’s final episode is one of the better final episodes in a while.
FOSSE/VERDON (Drama, Limited Series)
Setting: 1969-1987 (New York)
Fosse/Verdon is a compelling look at the relationship between Broadway legends Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) and Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams), tracing their careers and lives from the opening (and box office failure) of Fosse’s feature film directorial debut, Sweet Charity, to Fosse’s death in 1987.
Theirs was a complicated relationship. They clearly loved and respected each other, but Fosse was a troubled man whose substance abuse and womanizing made him “capital-P” Problematic. The limited series shows us just how much of Fosse’s career and brilliance we owe to Gwen Verdon, who was brilliant in her own right and was often forced to serve as a “Fosse translator” to casts and producers who had a difficult time working with him.
Fosse/Verdon illuminates how mid-century America created a toxic man like Fosse and kept a brilliant woman like Verdon from getting much of what she was due, despite her illustrious career.
WU-TANG: AN AMERICAN SAGA (Drama, 3 seasons)
Setting: 1990s (New York)
With Hip-Hop having celebrated its 50-year anniversary last year, it’s clear that any biographical series of early hip-hop artists can be considered a period piece, even if some of us were there experiencing it in middle or high school.
Wu-Tang: An American Saga is a series charting the rise of hip-hop legends, Wu-Tang Clan, against the backdrop of the crack-cocaine epidemic in early 1990s New York. The show was co-created by The RZA himself, Bobby Diggs, along with Alex Tse, so it’s worth a watch as an authentic telling of Wu-Tang’s story from the guy who started it all.
THE GREAT (Dramedy, 3 seasons)
Setting: 18th Century Russia (in the most anachronistic way possible)
Hulu’s The Great, starring Elle Fanning as Russia’s Catherine the Great and Nicholas Hoult as Emperor Peter III, is an unusual period piece in that it has a very light touch with regard to historical accuracy.
This dark comedy is a loose telling of how a young German woman named Catherine ended up marrying Russia’s emperor only to take the throne herself through myriad political machinations and become the longest-reigning woman in Russia’s history. It’s a story that shouldn’t be funny, but this series is at turns hilarious and deeply poignant.
The chemistry between Fanning and Hoult alone makes The Great worth it, but the rest of the cast is impeccable as well, and creator Tony McNamara’s storytelling is sublime.
FEUD (Drama, Ongoing Anthology Series)
Setting: Various
If you like your period pieces filled with real-life scandals and cattiness, have we got a show for you! Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, Feud, devotes each season to a different historical celebrity feud.
Season one, titled Feud: Bette and Joan, focused on the battle between Hollywood icons Bette Davis and Joan Crawford during and after the shooting of their 1962 film, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Season two, which debuted in January of this year, is called Feud: Capote vs. The Swans and tells the story of writer Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) and his feud with a group of socialites known as The Swans who targeted him with their rage after he captured their thinly-veiled escapades in published excerpts of a novel which ultimately remained unfinished.
HARLOTS (Drama, 3 seasons)
Setting: 1760s London
If you loved Downton Abbey, but like your period dramas a little more raunchy, Harlots might be just what you’re looking for.
Starring Samantha Morton as the madam of an up-and-coming brothel and Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findley (she played the beloved youngest Crawley, Sybil) as her daughter, an in-demand courtesan, Harlots tells the story of dueling brothels at a time when religious evangelists are on the rise and trying to close brothels down.
The world of 16th-century sex work is a fascinating one, and Harlots pulls no punches in its portrayal.
11.22.63 (Drama, Limited Series)
Setting: Present day/early 1960s
Here we have another Hulu book adaptation and another selection that alternates between the present day and a period setting. But in the case of 11.22.63, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, this isn’t because it’s employing flashbacks. It’s because this is a time travel story!
James Franco plays Jake Epping, an English teacher who, thanks to an essay written by a student and a friend’s storeroom that’s a portal to the past, gets to go back in time and try to stop the Kennedy assassination. Ah, that old time travel chestnut. Still, if you’re a fan of period pieces and speculative fiction, this is a worthwhile limited series to check out.
CANDY (Drama, Limited Series)
Setting: 1980 (Texas)
Hulu seems to have a lot of period options that are either based on real-life events, or based on books. Candy is a true-crime limited series starring Jessica Biel as Candy Montgomery, a woman who was accused of murdering her neighbor Betty (Melanie Lynskey) with an axe after she had the audacity to have an affair with Betty’s husband (Pablo Schreiber). That’s not very neighborly.
This five-episode series takes place in 1980 in Texas.
(featured image: Hulu)
