Young Indiana Jones was a series that explored that sort of thing, too, albeit with some degree of Spielberg proselytizing.

Have you watched Murdoch Mysteries? Its a canadian series set at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. So it deals with a lot of freedom issues (e.g., womens suffrage, religious prejudice) and often shows the joy as 'new' technologies are discovered by characters like Tesla.

I am currently enjoying the show Elementary. A sherlock Holmes set in the US. Watkins is an asian female doctor-Lucy Liu. true enough, Holmes is a fictional character, but the younger SA was a smuggler. for traders, many of the regulations imposed by british authorities weren't obvious say to the farmer yet. smugglers are tough cookies

Count your blessings.
Adams could have mutated into a black woman.

yes, but it's a TV drama. It's ok to have different stories about legendary historical figures. Get people interested in the story and then they go digging deeper. Think how many stories are out there about Robin Hood. how about "young Lincoln?" what about the portrayals of Teddy Roosevelt? Paul Revere. Queen Elizabeth. This is entertainment!

True. I watched it with my daughter and we kept pointing out the inaccuracies. If one wants history, accurately portrayed, watch HBO's mini series, 'John Adams'. I own it because I enjoyed it immeasurably. By far the better telling of what actually happened, as opposed to the flight of Assassin's Creed fancy on the History Channel. They truly missed the mark with this one. And their series The American Revolution was so wonderful! What happened??