Hello, all- I haven't seen these TV shows, but I do know a few things about Nostradamus. Sometimes it's better to start with the man himself.
There really aren't any good translations of his work available- sometimes if you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself. If you're
not up on Old Provencal & Latin, or old European history, it's a daunting task. I've translated most of his prophecies (hobby of mine).
Michel de Notredame wasn't out to make a buck- he was a French Jew whose family had converted to Roman Catholicism to escape the French Inquisition.
The Inquisition didn't take kindly to prophecy or anything it could interpret as witchcraft, either. The near-1000 quatrains are artfully written in
a way that seems vague at first for this reason. The poor man was in deadly fear of this Inquisition all of his life, with good reason.
Nostradamus' visions were sent to him by God, & the prophecies were meant to warn people of future events so that they could be stopped. To date, I
don't think it's ever happened. He is regarded by some as an unreliable prophet because so many of his prophecies have not yet come true.
A good place to start would be the books written by the late Erika Cheetham; she was a noted British historian. What she did was to use her extensive
knowledge of European history to try to solve all of the quatrains that had come true already- to cancel them out, as it were- so that she & others
could decipher the remaining quatrains for hints of future events. She did an admirable job.
In a nutshell, what I have investigated on my own reveals this: Nostradamus predicted 3 World Wars, & the third will make the first two look like tea
parties. He foresaw the end of the Catholic Church as we know it, and the rise of another better church out of its ashes to take its place. He
predicted the Antichrist, yes- but in three different incarnations; his first was as Hannibal of Carthage, his second was as Attila the Hun, & his
third shall be that of an "Apocalypse Now" type of person (it's a great movie- be sure to watch it)- a general of an army of a major world power
who will try to take over all of Asia. There's lots more- too much to reveal here.
What makes the quatrains so difficult is that they are NOT in the proper order. Finding the prophecies that relate to one another to create an entire
picture of an event is pretty tricky. Nostradamus also said that few if any people would have the psychic talent required to accurately translate his
work, & that most people would realize he was right after the events he predicted had occurred. Also, a knowledge of astrology is required. If one
knows how to do this, the astrological clues in his verses reveal a timeline of events- as long as the interpreter has a good ephemeris (a book of
timetables of the positions of the planets). For me, it was quite an adventure.
Most TV shows misinterpret Nostradamus a great deal, & yes, they are out to make a buck by entertaining people first & foremost. Take them with a
grain of salt. If anyone wants help with a translation, post it here or U2U me & I may have a few answers.