Waters says his "dream for any city" that his show visits is to find stories from its past that are "true" and make viewers wonder, "Why weren't we taught that in school?"



There is room for debate about the extent of the truth of some of the details in "Drunk History." Take the Poe story in the Baltimore episode, which focuses on the author's intense rivalry with Rufus Griswold, a poet and editor. The basic rivalry part seems to be on solid enough historical grounds.



But then, there are the embellishments by the drunken narrator, standup comedian Duncan Trussel, and some of the actors like Jesse Plemons who plays Poe with an off-the-wall anger and comic abandon.



At one point Plemons' Poe refers to Griswold as a "holographic piece of [expletive]."



"Holograms don't even exist yet, and I'm calling him a [expletive] hologram," Plemons lip syncs to Trussel's narration.



And then, there's Trussel's alcohol-wacky explanation of Poe's fame: That immediately after the writer died, Griswold went to town trashing Poe as a drunk and drug addict who was mentally ill — only it backfired.



A woman is shown holding a book of Poe's poems and saying, "A drunk, crazy guy who writes about ravens? Where can I get his books? This is awesome."



The story also has Griswold, who is played by Jason Ritter with one of the cheesiest looking beards in the history of TV, dying of tuberculosis alone in a room with a picture of Poe looking down on him. All of a sudden, the picture starts talking.



"Look at you, man," Poe's image says mockingly to the dying Griswold. "Where are you now?"



Plemons is outstanding in his extended riff as Poe...