Awesome with some disappointments (Two seasons))
Two seasons in, the show is overall great and closest to how I would design a show like this myself.
Starting with the downsides, there are parts where the show cannot communicate with the audience. Most people won't realize this but there are moments where they just didn't think through the micro-script well enough. In their defense, as I said it's only going to be realized by avid movie critics, and not the average watcher of the show, this means they did a good job preventing it to be obvious.
On a neutral note, there are "filler" scenes, the show is going fast enough but not ideal as they obviously needed to add some scenes that add no quality to the show itself. Though I'm going to take it, as it's still very much above the industry standard. I feel bad for writing this part but still we need to eliminate the "stretching" from the productions completely if we're gonna have really good ones. This, among with the relatively slow pace among the first episodes makes people leave watching this show.
Now there are aspects of the show which I really like, but not consistently delivered in the show. First off, the fact that they portray cultures not black and white, but of complexity makes it way more enjoyable to watch.
There are expections to this, such as pechenegs in season 2. Honeslty I dislike how the pechenegs are portrayed. Historically I don't think they were any more barbaric than vikings themselves, yet the show for some reason went for great lengths to portray them as such. One crazy barbaric tribe leader is fine but framing all pechenegs (except one) at the extreme delivers a bit of unrealisticness. Which brings me to the second point, overall the show makes a great job as making sure it stays believable, but there are other bits that are a little too unrealistic for my liking. Like the pace of the show, this also is not perfect yet overall above the standard so enough to get a pass from me.
Speaking of realisticness, one of the best things about the show is how realistically constructed the warfare is throughout it. The plans in the war campaign and tactical involvement of characters is inspiring. The way the characters are heroized is kept believable, and that's usually very hard to pull off. They did a really good job about that.
Another thing I must mention is the character design. The acting is overall good, and it contributes to the show. Especially Queen Emma, King Canute, Godwin, Harald, Olaf and Edmund are are my favorite, in terms of their design. I also really liked seeing people from different parts of the world integrated so seemlessly. Such as the Elena, Kurya, Mariam. The pecheneg leader had a pretty huge potential to be a great character too, it would add a lot of quality if such a charismatic character was much more than a dumb villain and had an actual personality. The byzantine empire (so far?) was underwhelming too, I hope we see more of him as well as people from other parts of the world.
Starting with the downsides, there are parts where the show cannot communicate with the audience. Most people won't realize this but there are moments where they just didn't think through the micro-script well enough. In their defense, as I said it's only going to be realized by avid movie critics, and not the average watcher of the show, this means they did a good job preventing it to be obvious.
On a neutral note, there are "filler" scenes, the show is going fast enough but not ideal as they obviously needed to add some scenes that add no quality to the show itself. Though I'm going to take it, as it's still very much above the industry standard. I feel bad for writing this part but still we need to eliminate the "stretching" from the productions completely if we're gonna have really good ones. This, among with the relatively slow pace among the first episodes makes people leave watching this show.
Now there are aspects of the show which I really like, but not consistently delivered in the show. First off, the fact that they portray cultures not black and white, but of complexity makes it way more enjoyable to watch.
There are expections to this, such as pechenegs in season 2. Honeslty I dislike how the pechenegs are portrayed. Historically I don't think they were any more barbaric than vikings themselves, yet the show for some reason went for great lengths to portray them as such. One crazy barbaric tribe leader is fine but framing all pechenegs (except one) at the extreme delivers a bit of unrealisticness. Which brings me to the second point, overall the show makes a great job as making sure it stays believable, but there are other bits that are a little too unrealistic for my liking. Like the pace of the show, this also is not perfect yet overall above the standard so enough to get a pass from me.
Speaking of realisticness, one of the best things about the show is how realistically constructed the warfare is throughout it. The plans in the war campaign and tactical involvement of characters is inspiring. The way the characters are heroized is kept believable, and that's usually very hard to pull off. They did a really good job about that.
Another thing I must mention is the character design. The acting is overall good, and it contributes to the show. Especially Queen Emma, King Canute, Godwin, Harald, Olaf and Edmund are are my favorite, in terms of their design. I also really liked seeing people from different parts of the world integrated so seemlessly. Such as the Elena, Kurya, Mariam. The pecheneg leader had a pretty huge potential to be a great character too, it would add a lot of quality if such a charismatic character was much more than a dumb villain and had an actual personality. The byzantine empire (so far?) was underwhelming too, I hope we see more of him as well as people from other parts of the world.
- albertfelicity
- Jan 13, 2023