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- Netflix
- Dec 12, 2014
- Netflix
- Dec 12, 2014
Summary The Netflix series explores the early days of Marco Polo's (Lorenzo Richelmy) time in the court of Kublai Khan (Benedict Wong).
Created By: John Fusco
- Netflix
- Dec 12, 2014
- Netflix
- Dec 12, 2014
Summary The Netflix series explores the early days of Marco Polo's (Lorenzo Richelmy) time in the court of Kublai Khan (Benedict Wong).
Created By: John Fusco
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Season Episodes
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
48
24% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
43% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
33% Negative
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 Critic Reviews
48
24% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
43% Mixed
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
33% Negative
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
A fun, body-flinging, old-fashioned epic.... As Kublai Khan, British actor Benedict Wong gives an impressive performance, one of the best of the year: You absolutely believe his ruthlessness, his power and his calculating thoughtfulness. As Marco Polo, on the other hand, Italian actor Lorenzo Richelmy, who looks like a more lyrical Emile Hirsch, mostly has to be put up with.
Beautiful but dull, at least in the early going.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 499 User Ratings
8.0
82% Positive
411 Ratings
411 Ratings
6% Mixed
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
11% Negative
57 Ratings
57 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 499 User Ratings
8.0
82% Positive
411 Ratings
411 Ratings
6% Mixed
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
11% Negative
57 Ratings
57 Ratings
My feeling on this show cannot be described...this is the first time I have been so hooked for a decade...perhaps since the remake of Battlestar Galactica...I really haven't seen a quality series like this forever!
As someone who has lived in the east and absorbed the culture its really a surprising and respectful effort.
I love the genuine and hard battles Marco has to pursue in his course, sometimes he lacks real character though it could be said he is not always the central role in this play.
It really is a beautiful theatre. I love the attention to the ancient art of war and the landscapes make a fitting backdrop. The music is perfect and unique as well as great costume design and cinematography.
I really feel the criticism of the critics is due to the hardness and unforgiving nature of the show though they fail to realise how much it gives to strong female leads and moral code. I hope people can see past the critics and see Marco Polo for what it really is...a fantastic and fantastical adventure.
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SEASON 1
Good-looking--also lethargic, languid, listless and a little bit lifeless--at least in the early going.
Creatively, it’s just a middling mess--something so average that a basic cable channel could have duplicated it without all the foreign travel for about $84 million less.
A dull period drama without characters to care about or a narrative in which to invest.
The show suffers from a profound lack of momentum and meaning, with plots and subplots that are stiff and predictable.
Marco Polo might best be utilized as a sedative or sleeping pill. All those dark to pitch black exteriors and interiors seem guaranteed to prompt an onset of heavy eyelids if not a complete conk-out. And if that doesn’t get you, the ponderous pace almost certainly will.
Anyone who expected a historic drama know this; Marco Polo is a fantasy show taking place in an imaginary world based on the stereotypical (and mostly inaccruate) view of Asia. BS everywhere. Those who have the slightest clue of Asian culture and history would find this seires unbearably clumsy. Aside from that, the show itself is okay.
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SEASON 1
I report to you two episodes in to this Weinstein Company, Netflix Original. I had been pulled in by my slightly morbid fascination with the Mongol Empire and the chance to see Benedict Wong, the ultra-gentle ping-pong wizard ‘Errol’ in Sean Lock’s brilliant Fifteen Stories High, as megalomaniac warlord Kublai Kahn, grandson of Genghis. How on earth could Errol be Kublai? How could those two things be possible?
It begins with the Polo entourage adventuring through a village in the aftermath of an invasion. Everyone is either charred or impaled and there’s a general air of misery and **** the Polos inspect the ruins they are ambushed, taken prisoner and delivered to the court of The Great Khan. Here we see Benedict Wong as Kublai for the first time. In vast contrast to his grandfather Genghis, Kublai was born into wealth and power and, just like all people who are born into privilege, he dresses like a magnificent buffoon (see Gaddafi’s sons or Gogglebox’s Dom Parker). The Polos are stood before him, waiting for him to speak. But Benedict Wong does not speak. Instead, when he finally opens his mouth, we realise he has been dubbed by Al Pacino, asked to give an Eastern twang to his Tony Montana. It sounds as brilliant as it is ridiculous and with that accent, a few minutes in, the viewer learns: this show is gonna be stupid. No lessons shall be learned, there shall be no great satire here. But it might be fun.
And so the vapid Marco joins Kublai and onward we go into this confused mesh of show as it intertwines the cinematic traditions of the East and West into a **** of culture and history that would make George R. Martin say, ‘Woah there’. Along with Tony Montana as Kublai and the lazy intercultural love **** feels like it’s all been done before, just in a different accent. The production values are as strong as you would expect from the Weinsteins, Wong is highly enjoyable as Kublai and there’s a pace to the narrative that gives you little time to be concerned with how naff the content is, but it’s a big disappointment.
Full review at ponderflix on wordpress.
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SEASON 1
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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SEASON 1
