Rivals

This has to be the worst attempt of a documentary that I've seen. From the get go you get the impression that Jada didn't do her homework and the portrait of events and beginning of the story telling is dreadful and boring. There is not much the actors can do... I mean they are just following a bad written script. This is another example of what will happen if you hire someone that has no experience in producing/directing/managing. Queen Cleo is such an icon and she's literally celebrated every where in the world, but unfortunately there is no flavour to this documentary... no magic or suspense, no nothing. Just incoherent and wrong timeliness of events. I have waited my time watching the firs episode. Don't bother.

The implementation of the dramatic aspect and the depiction of events had a significant weakness. This was evident in several aspects, starting from the poorly executed and repetitive decorations, backgrounds, and clothing of the characters. Some characters appeared in the same clothes and hairstyle despite the time gap of ten years or more, and some even wore costumes that were not historically accurate. Additionally, most of the actors who played the role of Roman soldiers had ill-fitting suits. The photography was also unimpressive, lacking creativity in adding momentum to certain scenes and being repetitive in some instances, like Mark Anthony's scenes. Lastly, the acting of most of the actors was poor, with some of them seeming to focus more on the camera than their roles.

Well although some parts of Queen Cleopatra is known. Much is left to historical speculation as information of her lineage has been lost, this includes her mother's race.

So Cleopatra is Hellenistic but her family were in Egypt for eight generations.

This Netflix docudrama mixes academic talking heads with dramatic reenactments using actors.

Rivals shows how after the death of her father, Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator became co-rulers.

They even married, as because they were gods. They could marry even though they were siblings.

That did not stop family rivalry and plotting especially when the Roman came with Julius Caesar.

In the first episode I felt the dramatic bits felt paper thin. The actors looked unconvinced.