Television series

Gunpowder

Name: Gunpowder
Genre: Drama, History
Released: 2017
Cast: Kit Harington, Liv Tyler, Mark Gatiss, Peter Mullan, Shaun Dooley

A taut three-part miniseries about the men behind the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. Kit Harington plays Robert Catesby with quiet intensity, moving through Protestant persecution and moral compromise toward an act of terrorism. It's a character study wrapped in espionage thriller, asking how ordinary people justify extraordinary violence. For anyone drawn to historical drama that doesn't let its villains off easy.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like tightly plotted period drama where conspiracy grows out of ordinary people's doubts, loyalties and fear, and you're happy to sit with moral murk rather than clear heroes.

Skip it if you want brisk action or a clear-cut hero; this is talky, slow-burning and dense with courtly maneuvering, so its patience can feel like work.

What it asks of you: Three one-hour episodes make it a single evening, but every scene rewards close attention to shifting alliances, whispered motives and what characters leave unsaid.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Crown2016

If you're hungry for a different window into 17th-century power, The Crown explores how monarchies work and break. Immaculate production, propulsive storytelling, and a similar fascination with the machinery of state and personal conscience.

But It's contemporary history, not early-modern, and much longer. Some seasons drag. If you want to avoid the emotional investment of a 50-hour show, this isn't it.

Wolf Hall2015

Another BBC period miniseries about men caught between faith, politics and survival. Mark Rylance is hypnotic. The same blend of intimate character work and historical stakes, that whispered intensity where danger is always present.

But Slower and more baroque in style. If you want plot to move cleanly from A to B, the layered, almost novelistic pacing may feel wilfully obscure.

Manhunt2017

A tense cat-and-mouse about understanding a radical mind. Focuses less on action than on psychology—how the FBI profiler thinks his way into the killer's reasoning. That same fascination with how people come to justify the unjustifiable.

But It's American procedural rather than historical drama. Some find the pacing mechanical or the character work thin compared to the intellectual puzzle.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Gunpowder

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Prophet2009

Both trace how an ordinary person becomes something dangerous through circumstance and choice. Both are committed to showing this process without flinching or excusing it.

A French film about a young man who enters prison as a nobody and emerges as a crime boss through will and cunning. Uncompromising character study of radicalization and moral transformation. Like Gunpowder, it refuses to judge its protagonist while making every cost visible.

But Subtitled, set entirely in a French prison, and deeply unglamorous. If you want historical spectacle or narrative safety, it offers neither.

12 Years a Slave2013

Steve McQueen's film doesn't flinch from depicting systematic cruelty and moral collapse. Fiercely made. If you want historical drama that sits with pain rather than prettifying it, this is uncompromising.

But Brutal to watch. Not entertainment in any light sense. If you're seeking comfort or uplift, this will exhaust you.

All the Light We Cannot See2023

A miniseries about two young people on opposite sides of WWII. Beautifully shot, emotionally intricate, interested in how ordinary lives get shaped by extraordinary historical forces. That human cost of ideological conflict.

But Romantic in a way Gunpowder isn't. Much longer (four hours). If you want austerity and moral ambiguity, this softens its edges.

The Terror2018

A miniseries about men in impossible circumstances, where external threat and internal breakdown are equally real. Atmospheric, character-driven, and genuinely unsettling. That same sense of watching ordinary people fracture under pressure.

But Horror-inflected, which some find gimmicky. Slower than Gunpowder. If you want your tension purely psychological rather than supernatural, the gothic elements may distract.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho A Story that leads to the Antarctica2018

Actually, this is a gentle anime about four girls dreaming of Antarctica. It shares Gunpowder's intimate focus on a small group committed to an impossible goal, and how that shared purpose transforms them. Sounds nothing like it, but the emotional architecture is kin.

But It's anime. Entirely different tone—warm, funny, hopeful. If you're seeking another grim exploration of radicalism, you'll feel wildly mismatched.

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho A Story that leads to the Antarctica poster

The Nightingale2018

An Australian WWII film about a woman seeking vengeance. Intimate and brutal, focused on one person's moral descent. That same willingness to follow a protagonist into places that are hard to watch.

But Difficult subject matter handled without mercy. Some viewers find it punishing rather than moving. The revenge fantasy isn't cathartic—it's tragic.

Versailles2015

A French historical drama about political intrigue, faith and power at Louis XIV's court. Gorgeously made, genuinely twisted. If you want the paranoia and plotting without the miniseries constraints, this sprawls across more ground.

But Structurally messier than Gunpowder. Sometimes veers toward soap opera. If you value tight three-act construction, the narrative can feel sprawling and repetitive.

Come and See1985

Where Gunpowder shows men choosing radicalism, Come and See shows what radicalism does to those too young to choose. Both refuse the comfort of moral simplicity.

A Belarusian war film about a boy who joins the resistance in WWII. Possibly the most harrowing film ever made. Not exploitative—heartbreaking in the way only cinema can be. A document of how ideology grinds human beings into unrecognisable shapes.

But Devastating. Long stretches of graphic violence. Shot in a deliberately ugly, almost documentary style. Most people will find it painful to sit through, and that's the point.

The Death of Stalin2017

Both examine how systems of power corrupt those within them. Both understand that the people running terrible machinery are usually ordinary men telling themselves stories. Gunpowder is tragedy, this is farce—but they're asking the same questions.

An Armando Iannucci mockumentary about the days after Stalin's death, in black and white, in Russian. Furiously funny but never without teeth—it's about power, fear and the machinery of state just as much as Gunpowder is. Wildly entertaining where Gunpowder is austere.

But Comedy about totalitarianism. If you need your history played straight, or you don't find satire about atrocity palatable, this will grate. The tone may feel inappropriately light.