War of Letters

The Positive - Zachary Baharov's performance is good. His delivery is on point and embodies the character he's portraying. Unfortunately, that pretty much cover's it. I'm giving 1 star for that performance, another 1 for the production team that endured the shooting of this embarrassment, and 1 star for the focus puller (who did a great job keeping up with an unruly camera all day), for a total of 3-star rating.

The Negative - Direction and screenplay - are nonexistent. It's a simple plot, followed by awkward dialogue, hints of a story, and a bit of pseudo-conflict. You have some of the best Bulgarian actors working today, but the directors decided to waste the potential and talent of these actors with no direction and sense of delivery. The acting looks more like a theater play than cinema or tv. Dialogue is genuinely cringeworthy at times when the director tries to insert jokes. Putting aside the historical interpretation of events and looking purely at the story, it's not even entertaining. At one point, it becomes a chore following these characters waiting for something interesting to happen.

Cinematography - The camera has a mind of its own, wandering around and lacking any sense of composition (half of the time, the other half, it's okay). Shot with some sort of Steadicam, or the equivalent, the camera is unstable, almost like it's hovering in the vicinity of the actors, and the constant micro adjustments are distracting. We are looking at a movie shot in close-ups, mid-shots, and cowboy shots. There is a severe lack of wide shots and establishing shots, which disorient the viewer and doesn't allow room to take in the information. The lighting is fine; I could say it's sufficient, nothing to behold. The classic modern Teal/Orange night scene is thrown in there to keep up with the trends, with a bunch of unmotivated lighting in the woods. There is an exterior night scene where three people sleep by a single fire in the middle of the woods. When they suddenly stand up to fight some wolves, a strong orange light comes from somewhere in the woods. I guess the main character had lit a 3-meter bonfire 5-10 meters away to keep them extra warm, yet decided to sleep next to a small cozy, intimate fire. There are a bunch of similar shots with unmotivated key lights. The things the DP does well are the OTS shots and close-ups, but the bar is set relatively low for this show. Wherever his talents lie, they were not seen here.

I don't know who is responsible for keeping track of the 180-degree rule (either the DP or director), but when there are more than 3 people on screen, this rule goes out the window. You get stuck in a whirlwind of disorientation.

For example, in the Throne room scene, there are 10 actors; you can witness an episode where all common sense gets suddenly forgotten, and the camera jumps all over the place.

The one thing that rivals the directing is the editing. I don't know which one is worse. Whoever edited the pilot episode is, at the very least inexperienced and should be embarrassed. The pace is off by a mile. Some cuts seem like things need to happen, but the dialogue doesn't suggest that. Half of the time, after the actors have delivered their lines, they are left on the screen for a few extra seconds looking like complete dorks. That's how you ruin an otherwise okay performance. You can thank the editor for that.

At times the audio is so awful that it gets annoying. There's an unnecessary echo in some interior castle scenes. The foley sounds are ridiculous. For example, when a metal sword hits a wooden shield, there should be a thumping sound. Instead, they used a metal scraping metal sound. What about the use of stock audio?

You can hear the classic breaking of a clay pot, that familiar to everyone sound used in cartoons and B-list movies.

The H/MW depts have done an okay job, nothing unique or outstanding. However, it looks like they did the best they could with the available budget.

Overall, the film looks cheap and unrefined. However, a change in direction and a massive change in post-production can do this tv show a lot of good. I am not looking forward to the other episodes.

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!

It's worth seeing the action scenes and get in the mood. Perfect screenplay that aims to pay homage to old-fashioned craftsmanship and skill. The interest in the story is entirely the work of the stars. Demonstrating once again that there are few limits to the talent of an actor or actress. Who inhabits the fragile, spiteful contradiction of the story with such fierce dedication that it brings out the best in the actors around him..!? Although there are scenes of harrowing emotional openness and spontaneous charm, largely due to the degree of calculation evident in the plot and imagery, it undermines efforts to move and seduce..!?

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.

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 :-)