Hello,
My friend in graduate school is trying to help me learn Chinese and he mentioned that he hopes one day I can watch some of his favorite television dramas which focus on Chinese history. He says they are historical but some of the details may be necessarily made up just due to lack of detailed accounts. For example, I think this one about the Han Dynasty might be an example. Can anyone shed light on to what would be considered accurate and what might be embellished or possibly recommend a good series for history (especially one with pinyin subtitles). Thank you. I apologize if this question deviates too much from the nature of this subreddit.
First and foremost you should understand that these are television productions meant to attract large audiences. With that in mind, it would be more accurate to describe them as historical fiction similar to many popularized historical accounts of American history that have been portrayed in/by the mainstream media. (I'm thinking of movies like The Patriot).
My knowledge of Chinese Dramas is rather limited, since in my Chinese film and culture class we studied exclusively movies. But there are many good movies such as Farewell My Concubine and Yellow Earth which help to portray Chinese history in an interesting and compelling way. Even Hero is a good movie that can be used to understand ancient as well as current topics in Chinese culture and history.
As far as pinyin subtitles, I don't know of any movies or dramas that are officailly produced with pinyin subtitles. There might be some kid's shows but as far as i know, having lived in Beijing for 3 month in 2010 even the kids shows are subtitled in characters. That being said I'm sure you can find some fan subbed videos of dramas or movies that have pinyin.
TL;DR The Chinese dramas that you find on mainstream Chinese television are mostly dramas in a historical time period (Think Downton Abby).