A journalist and an historian take a look at some of the most violent tales in history to try to determine how much of them are fact and how much are myth in the docuseries, “Bloody Tales of Europe.” The six episode series takes look at the worst executions, murders, acts of revenge, monsters, dark arts and tyrants. Throughout their investigations, Joe Crowley and Dr. Susannah Lipscomb end up verifying some of the gory details while proving others wrong and coming to their own conclusions about what happened in history.

My favorite episode of this series was the episode about the monsters. I was interested in learning more about the legend of Vlad the Impaler and how that contributed to the Count Dracula stories we’ve seen in film and television over the past century. I loved seeing how the legend came to be and then grew well beyond the person it was supposed to represent. These stories have been the subject of legends and it was great to see how much of it was real and how much of it is mythical.

In what was a surprising twist for me, my least favorite episode was the one about the dark arts. I really thought I would enjoy that episode, but it just didn’t keep my attention. I live not far from Salem, Massachusetts and have always been intrigued by the witch hunt stories both there and in other parts of the United States. I thought I would be interested in seeing similar stories from Europe, but I just found it rather meh compared to the other episodes of the series.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series. It hit a lot better, for me, than the true crime series you’ll see elsewhere. I would love to see more Bloody Tales added whether they be from Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa or Australia. I hope, if these shows have been made, they’ll be added to Disney+. If not, I hope someone takes on the challenge. This was a nice look at history.

Rating: 3.5 stars

What did you think of “Bloody Tales of Europe?”

Jeremy Brown

Jeremy has been a big Disney fan since he was a kid growing up during the Disney Renaissance. One day he hopes to go to every Disney Park in the world.

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