War of Letters

I don't know the novel, but the first episode of the series captured my attention from the very first scenes. Outstanding scenography, brilliant cast, very good music and a fascinating story. I like the idea that the historical events are just a backdrop to the story and the team's goal is to recreate universal human relationships. The production is certainly large-scale and promising, I will follow the rest of the episodes with interest.

The storylines that were set in the first episode are a request for an interesting development, and the escape from the typical clichés in historical dramas gives a modern reading to both the drama and historical figures, which until now we know extremely one-sided.

I love the series - I am starting to watch the episodes for a second time already and appreciate the intricate plot even more.

1. Bayan is exceptional. Wonderful, sexy, mesmerising, raw.

2. All the other actors are at extremely high level and put fantastic and believable performances.

3. The soundtrack is moving.

4. I like the pictures, though some battles scenes could have had more people in them to create impact and drama (appreciate this is likely a budget issue).

This series excited my interest in this part of the Bulgarian history which I had hardly revisited in 30 years. I want to learn more and watch more! Please make another series once this one is over! (with Bayan in it :-)

I personally don't like the book. It was too boring for me, to fictional..This tv show is easy to watch; however, I think that it is very difficult to write the script and the story. History, hypotheses, facts, and stories are decomposed and reassembled into something that is possible. Possible and very interesting scenario. Maybe this is the truth, maybe it is a dream from the future, maybe you will take a little time to watch it... It is about the magic of the Bulgarian lands, the beauty of the Slavic people, and the teaching power of Bulgarians united in a great story. The story of Letters will persuade you...

For now watched half of Season 1, the story so far is with literally 3 hol'i'wood crap script decisions - one of them is too much 'almost hard love scenes'. Camera, scenes, scenery, clothes, atmosphere, rhythm - it is exceptional clutched as one movie. Usually there are 1-2 starting very good episodes, and then starts the 'filling', but here - every episode is ~55min (not just the first one!!) and every one of them have 0 wasted time in them. There is no even single waste scene! I definitely would change 2 more aspects - the dreams scenes and the overall 'causality'. By the time was is the mightiest court, and they present it too casual, too profanic, too much 'right now' which is impossible for tzar/emperor dynasty ... such people have always one eye in the future (in the classic books), but here they act more like midlevel managers. If you meet 'strange' moments - they are connected to something further in the series. No idea how is the book, I did read the interview with the authoress, and she said that the movie have the general direction by the book, but it is not 1:1. I sincerely believe the amount of NPCs is just right, as in this time the whole army was ~30k people, so for me it is normal the court to be about dozen people etc. They have horses, and the actors are riding them very calmly and naturally looking. When thew swing swords the movements are super OK, and not hol'i'wooded (or chinesed) at all. They don't use dumb special crap ... and yet there are special effects here and there. Some characters are unbalanced, purely scripter decision, but also they are consistent, so ok.

This is a very fine series. We are still getting to know the characters after episode 1, and they are all interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to each character and when and how the future episodes show us more of them. The cast is pretty amazing and all do a fantastic job. The story does grab you and has the potential to be very compelling as they are setting up interesting twists and mysteries.

This is all fiction, not a historically accurate portrait, and it's a really good piece of entertainment. I'm not a history buff but it would be interesting to follow which events depicted are actual historical fact and which are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Waiting for more episodes!