La Cruzada

The biggest challenge of this show was to actually sit through it.

Hammy, wooden acting.

Tropes and jokes that never land.

A mish mash and rehash of tales already told with better direction and effects.

I'm sorry but i can't recommend, i wanted to like this so much, as i'm a huge fan of the Fantasy genre, but this was unwatchable.

Get a different director and try again is about all i can say.

As a fan of the first hour (The Quest 2014 blew me away!), I can't help to compare the old and the new. I'll be honest, as soon as the soundtrack set in, and I realised they had gotten the same composers from 2014 back, I was hooked, and a second later, I was fully emersed in Everealm.

Yes, the show has its flaws, that was to be expected.

Filming with underaged teenagers makes some things more difficult in general with limited filming hours per day and such. Some of the after-challenge-talks among the Paladins came across kind of staged and clumsy although I'm sure they were authentic. As soon as a scripted character was present and asked them questions, this awkward atmosphere was gone, so maybe to that more next season?

The scripted characters sometimes - very rarely though - acted incomprehensively, especially the castle's guards and also Prince Cederic. He drove me nuts with his actions.

Some of the challenges were well thought through, others were hard to grasp for the audience and the Paladins alike, and the fact that there was no elimination this time (Thank the Fates!) often made it hard to understand how the winner was chosen.

While most of the props and costumes were top notch (I SO appreciated that the royals wore different costumes every day as royals would.), a few props and costumes looked super cheap like bad LARP equipment, and the same goes for the creatures, which is very strange because some were SOOO lifelike and others looked like unconvincing Power Rangers villains. It was almost as if two different teams had worked on the make-up, props, and costume department.

Apart from these points of criticism, there's only good things to say.

The writers filled the story with so much lore and history, so much character development. The characters have depths, they have pasts, there is no black and white. The story starts off much darker and with an imminently menacing atmosphere. All actors were 100% convincing, I suffered with them, I cheered with them. The special effects (I know how difficult CGI fire is!) were fantastic, the music combined the old Quest soundtrack and also had new beautiful themes. The Paladins were a fantastic team, each of them super likeable, and they were 100% immersed in this world - as was I.

I can't wait to return to Castle Saenctum next season!

Continue the Quest.

A few people don't remember that this is not a new show. The Original concept for the show came out back in 2014 on ABC.

Then it was 12 people with the contestants aging from 19 to 40.

This show is about teens from modern times being "transported" to a medieval reality show. Its basically LARPing there is zero chance of pulling off the concept without being corny.

If you can make it past that its a fun watch. The actors do a decent job. The costuming and creature makeup is excellent. The world building is so so, but immersive enough.

The weakest part is the reality show aspect. The format doesn't give much room for the participants to show personalities or interact in a non-forced way. They mostly sit around listening to the characters speak and then run from challenge to challenge. Sometimes they say, "Ewww bugs" or "wow we did good on that challenge." That's the extent of it.

The challenges they face are pretty vanilla and low stakes. Although its really a kids show so don't expect things to get too scary or the storyline to be anything special.

Again, mindless fun and a decent attempt by Disney at this concept.

For those of you that keep comparing this to the original, you will keep being disappointed by the fact that it isn't equal to its predecessor.

It will never be better or equal to original but that does not mean that it is not worth watching.

The acting is phenomenal, the makeup is incredible and the special effect are state of the art and the storyline reminds me of the Witcher.

Stop comparing it to something that it will never be.

This is a reinvention of something classic that happened 8 years ago.

Move with the times people.

There was alot of work, effort and care that went into this show and it shouldn't be based as heavily as it has been on this app.

Give it a chance, get lost in the story, enjoy the tension and Lord of the Rings like battles.

If it's not your cup of tea go rewatch the original after all nobody is making you watch this.

TV is for your pleasure alone so enjoy yourself elsewhere if you keep comparing it to some blast from the past.