stopeeper

Reviewed after watching Season 2.

Really good show. But as someone who has read the books, I cannot help but be bothered by all the changes they made. Especially in Season 2, it's pretty much an entirely different story and characters. What they did to the kids and Solo truly felt like a gut punch.

And it made me laugh out loud that the ONE thing they didn't change was the Iran nonsense. The author of the book clearly didn't want to spell China, or any other country ACTUALLY capable to pull off what the story requires. And so did the show. That's still some market share loss though, they should have gone further, say the Marshall Islands, or the Maldives...

The CGI is not stellar, and the costumes look too pristine and fake. But that's small gripes compared to the abysmal writing. A silly mishmash of every cliche from Ancient Rome you could possible think of. Gladiator fights that made little to no sense. Chariot races that reminded me of that Asterix and Obelix movie where they had Michael Schumacher and pit stops. Power intrigues that would look silly even in Paw Patrol.

They've tried to make it gritty by adding sex and violence, but none of it happens to the main characters. The sex is pretty much always on the background, and all important characters have massive plot armors. At one point one of the characters was about to die and a volcano erupted and shook the ground to save him.

Speaking of which - Vesuvius is 200km away from Rome. There ain't no eruption shocks that would be felt in Rome. If the ground in Rome is shaking so much that people can't stand on their feet, then there will be nothing left standing in Naples. And don't let me start on the dust cloud that followed.

I watched 6 episodes and think I've had enough.