Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: Film and TV, Netflix, Documentaries
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Harley Young
Netflix's new documentary drama has already been slammed for 'woke washing' by viewers.
The six-part series Alexander: The Making Of A God has been rated just 2.5 stars on Google, with lots of viewers complaining about the drama's main focus being on the historic ruler's sexuality.
As one of the most successful military men of history, Alexander the Great amassed an empire spanning from Macedonia to India and into Egypt during his fourth-century BC rule - before he died aged 32.
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However, the new Netflix drama sees the life of Alexander through his relationships.
One review from an account on X called 'End Wokeness' read: "Netflix made a new documentary about Alexander The Great. Within the first 8 minutes, they turned him gay."
However, commenters soon responded by adding that scholars believe that Alexander the Great did engage in sexual relations with other men.
One person responded: "I don’t think it was Netflix that made him gay."
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Actually, men having sexual relations with each other was commonplace in ancient Greece. This is explained in the first episode by to Cardiff University professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, who confirms that "same-sex relationships were quite the norm throughout the Greek world."
He added: "The Greeks did not have a word for homosexuality, or to be gay. It just wasn’t in their vocabulary whatsoever. There was just being sexual."
Despite this explanation in the first episode, viewers were still unhappy.
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One person, who posted a one-star review to Google, wrote: '"The show starts off full on homoerotic, because according to Netflix, everyone is gay. 30 minutes of skippable scenes later the show goes full on into Woke Washing.
"What is that? Every single piece of history was made as 'Safe and inoffensive [sic]' as possible. Even the supposed 'experts' were choking on their sanitized descriptions.
"The dialog and lines appear to be written by a child who grew up on memes. "The 'Total War' video game series had better motivational 'pre war' speeches than this show of charged positivity.
"Both Kings, Alexander and Darius [Alexander's Persian adversary] were depicted as weak and groveling. Not words and behaviors you'd expect from warlord rulers. The show seemed to lean more towards a pity show for Darius than a Documentary of Alexander.
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"It was terrible. Netflix needs to stop making shows and go back to being a streaming service."
Alexander the Great is believed to have had King Darius of Persia's former eunuch Bagoas as his lover after conquering the land, but, despite having at least two children and three different marriages, literature notes that his most prolific companion was Hephaestion - his general and bodyguard.
This love was supposedly profound, as Alexander was said to have "lay weeping on his comrade for a day & night before being pried away" when Hephaestion died after perishing from a fever.
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Another unconvinced 'history buff' wrote in their Google review: "I can say with certainty that there is zero evidence Alexander was gay."