I can understand why people might be skeptical of the argument that Cleopatra had any non-Macedonian ancestry given her dynasty's origins, but the sheer amount of hostility directed towards this documentary seems so disproportionate to me that I can't help but think that there's more going on than a simple disagreement with how it recounts history. If the documentary had speculated that Cleopatra had, say, Persian or Mesopotamian ancestry in addition to Macedonian, would all these people be getting so upset?
Anyway, the documentary acknowledges in the first episode that portraying Cleopatra as being part Egyptian is speculative, taking care to point out that there are real gaps in her genealogical record (e.g. The identity of her mother and paternal grandmother). That, of course, doesn't guarantee that she was part Egyptian or any other African, but I think it does give the lie to a lot of the armchair historians' overconfidence in the opposite scenario.
As for the quality of the series in general, it's not bad in my opinion. The expert commentary helps give us background while the acted dramatizations bring the history to life. I did find the actors' British accents to be distracting though (this was a problem I had with the Njinga series the filmmakers put out on Netflix). Overall, I would recommend it for people interested in Cleopatra and the people around her.
Anyway, the documentary acknowledges in the first episode that portraying Cleopatra as being part Egyptian is speculative, taking care to point out that there are real gaps in her genealogical record (e.g. The identity of her mother and paternal grandmother). That, of course, doesn't guarantee that she was part Egyptian or any other African, but I think it does give the lie to a lot of the armchair historians' overconfidence in the opposite scenario.
As for the quality of the series in general, it's not bad in my opinion. The expert commentary helps give us background while the acted dramatizations bring the history to life. I did find the actors' British accents to be distracting though (this was a problem I had with the Njinga series the filmmakers put out on Netflix). Overall, I would recommend it for people interested in Cleopatra and the people around her.