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I watched all episodes in a single day and I just can't STAND IT! Seriously though, I'm on episode 3 and it seems fine so far? Should be titled kublai khan though
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Dec 14, 2014 22:42
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Party Plane Jones posted:That's 10,000 troops. You gotta have faith that the other 8,000 men are just offscreen.
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Dec 14, 2014 23:31
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Josh Lyman posted:You're projecting years of Hollywood tripe onto the relationship between Marco and the princess. I don't know what you mean by that. This is a kung-fu 'n boobs show, it's not somehow above Hollywood tripe.
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Dec 15, 2014 03:54
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Lycus posted:I don't know what you mean by that. This is a kung-fu 'n boobs show, it's not somehow above Hollywood tripe. There's very little kung-fu (probably less than 15 minutes of it in the entire season), and the erotic scenes are designed to describe and add color to the setting and the culture (unlike with, say, Tudors). To be frank, I found the show to be distinctly non-Hollywood, in a good way.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:09
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Anyway, I just finished the whole thing and I liked it a lot. The show foregoes historical accuracy in favor of a more compelling plot where Marco Polo plays a much more critical role in historical events (than he did in real life), but I found the transgressions to be acceptable. If they shoot a second season, I'd like it to take place in another setting, though. The writers have a lot of places to pick from: 
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Dec 15, 2014 04:16
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enraged_camel posted:There's very little kung-fu (probably less than 15 minutes of it in the entire season), and the erotic scenes are designed to describe and add color to the setting and the culture (unlike with, say, Tudors). It does remind me of The Tudors, but the sex scenes seem really well done in that they play a role in showing some of the dimensions of character relationships. Like how Empress Chabi and Ahmed have some role in the choice of putting Mai Lin close to Kublai. It adds depth even if it's not explicitly talked about in the story.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:21
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It ends with a climactic kung-fu fight. It's an enjoyable show, it's just not super-serious.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:29
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Lycus posted:It ends with a climactic kung-fu fight And that makes it a "kung-fu 'n boobs show"? You need to try harder.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:44
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Is this show anything like that awesome marco polo movie made in 2007? If so then this is totally my poo poo.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:46
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enraged_camel posted:And that makes it a "kung-fu 'n boobs show"? Okay, I'm not actually trying anything, it's just not that serious a show. So yeah, "Hollywood" or not, Marco swiftly fell in love with the Blue Princess.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:48
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This little guy right here really stole the show. Sometimes I had trouble focusing on the plot because he was just staring right at me.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:48
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Lycus posted:Okay, I'm not actually trying anything, it's just not that serious a show. So yeah, "Hollywood" or not, Marco swiftly fell in love with the Blue Princess. Yeah, for no loving reason other than to create conflict. That poo poo is dumb.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:49
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I like how Marco Polo walked/rode on poo poo for the journey to China, but was like "gently caress that desert poo poo: boats" for the return. 
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Dec 15, 2014 04:53
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Watched 7 episodes so far but I like all the asian actors. This show almost feels like it should be titled Kublai Khan instead.
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Dec 15, 2014 04:55
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Do you think they would have greenlit a show called "Kublai Khan"? If what you guys are saying then the writer's probably sneaked in an Asian-centric story under the guise of it being about one really great white dude.
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Dec 15, 2014 05:04
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nutranurse posted:Is this show anything like that awesome marco polo movie made in 2007? If so then this is totally my poo poo. I had to look that up. Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan, haha.
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Dec 15, 2014 05:10
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Lycus posted:I had to look that up. Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan, haha. When he appeared on-screen for the first time everyone in my college class laughed at the absurdity; even the professor who presumably has seen this movie twice a year since he designed the course himself. Pre-modern Chinese history was the best survey course.
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Dec 15, 2014 05:14
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Lycus posted:I had to look that up. Brian Dennehy as Kublai Khan, haha. oh poo poo and boone from Lost as Marco Polo, I'm gonna watch this tonight and fill in all the gaps netflix left out
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Dec 15, 2014 05:15
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nutranurse posted:Do you think they would have greenlit a show called "Kublai Khan"? If what you guys are saying then the writer's probably sneaked in an Asian-centric story under the guise of it being about one really great white dude. Actually, the show may look like it is about Kublai Khan, but under the surface it's actually about Marco Polo. It's just that they had to give Kublai Khan a major role, because real-life Marco Polo spent seventeen years in his court.
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Dec 15, 2014 06:05
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enraged_camel posted:Actually, the show may look like it is about Kublai Khan, but under the surface it's actually about Marco Polo. It's just that they had to give Kublai Khan a major role, because real-life Marco Polo spent seventeen years in his court. Having watched the whole season, I'd say Marco Polo is probably the 4th or 5th most important character on the show. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I actually find the Kublai Khan stuff way more interesting than Polo's character.
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Dec 15, 2014 06:21
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I'm surprised this is reviewing so badly on so many sites. I've watched 7.5 episodes tonight and I'm really enjoying it. Sifu is awesome. Jia Sidao is deliciously menacing. The fight scenes are very very well-done. We also had a naked concubine destroy a bunch of horny soldiers. What's not to like? WastedJoker fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 06:48
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It has falconry too.
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Dec 15, 2014 07:15
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I found that the show gets massively better after the first couple of episodes. Every part of the story feels really interesting with the exception of the stupid blue princess romance. The characters are well developed with intriguing motives and traits (yeah a couple of them are one dimensional but others aren't). I came in not hoping for much after I read some previews online but now I'm really hoping this gets renewed. e: also for what it's worth, the cinematography and direction in this are like 10 times better than game of thrones. shodanjr_gr fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 08:49
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The - female - characters are pretty interesting, but if you scrutinize their stories, their plots feel pretty trite. Maybe because it feels like the writers don't want the audience to draw any major lessons from their aside from sheer entertainment. The Khan disputes came across more soapy than political for instance, and the internal power struggle in the Song empire also feels the same way. Jinghim got a fairer shake that way, but his antagonism still felt like a narrative necessity than something that made a whole lot sense on its own.
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Dec 15, 2014 09:16
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shodanjr_gr posted:I found that the show gets massively better after the first couple of episodes. Every part of the story feels really interesting with the exception of the stupid blue princess romance. It starts out as a dumb "guy falls in love with girl he can't have" story but turns out to be a lot deeper about half-way through. ufarn posted:The - female - characters are pretty interesting, but if you scrutinize their stories, their plots feel pretty trite. Maybe because it feels like the writers don't want the audience to draw any major lessons from their aside from sheer entertainment. The Khan disputes came across more soapy than political for instance, and the internal power struggle in the Song empire also feels the same way. Jinghim got a fairer shake that way, but his antagonism still felt like a narrative necessity than something that made a whole lot sense on its own. Jingim's antagonism may seem shallow on the surface, but later on you learn that it stems from a deep identity crisis. Remember, he's only half-Mongolian, which makes him question himself and make others question him. His antagonism is a necessary front for hiding his more sensitive nature from the pure-blood Mongolians in the court.
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Dec 15, 2014 09:23
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enraged_camel posted:Jingim's antagonism may seem shallow on the surface, but later on you learn that it stems from a deep identity crisis. Remember, he's only half-Mongolian, which makes him question himself and make others question him. His antagonism is a necessary front for hiding his more sensitive nature from the pure-blood Mongolians in the court. It does a good job of explaining how Jinghim throws himself into battle assuming great amounts of risk, but he's like a Mongolian Joffrey to Marco Polo at home. And it goes toward the problem of forcing white-dude Marco Polo to being the gravitational point whom everything is about; Jinghim didn't HAVE to harbour huge feelings about Polo and would be a great character without it, but Polo being the protagonist, everything has to be about him. ufarn fucked around with this message at 09:49 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 09:46
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I'm four episodes in and I'm liking the show. Kublai's amazing in every scene. The Mongol Empire has always been one of those history subjects that fascinate me, and we get to a see a court emerge as something not quite Mongol yet not quite Chinese too. Covering the transitional period as a quasi-nomadic culture consolidates its power over a seemingly eternal traditional civilization is a great choice for a setting. This is the best Netflix original. gently caress House of Cards and its Mary Sue characters.
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Dec 15, 2014 10:58
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nutranurse posted:Do you think they would have greenlit a show called "Kublai Khan"? If what you guys are saying then the writer's probably sneaked in an Asian-centric story under the guise of it being about one really great white dude. Considering the sheer amount of capital involved, unfortunately probably not. Alternatively, making it simply 'The Khans' might have worked, in the same way 'Vikings' would and has garnered more public interest than simply 'Ragnar Lodbrok' would have. You often have to play a bit of a fine line on relying on people's popular perceptions, even if they're ill informed, because few will bother to make research outside of trailers (if they even bother to watch those), and the popular perception in the west of the Mongols is either invaders from the east, or good old Genghis himself. And since neither is what the show aimed for, if mostly for being the wrong time period, the easy way out is to involve the historical westerner. Really though I think at least some of it is offset by how its made clear to Marco that his treatment (at least in universe, nevermind how the plot actually puts it) is not all that unique, as the Khan likes any of his foreign slaves to be useful.
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Dec 15, 2014 11:05
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Echo Chamber posted:This is the best Netflix original. gently caress House of Cards and its Mary Sue characters. I don't see how house of cards has Mary Sue characters? Everyone on the show is hosed up one way or another and they make lots of mistakes and suffer failures.
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Dec 15, 2014 12:49
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Astro Nut posted:Considering the sheer amount of capital involved, unfortunately probably not. Alternatively, making it simply 'The Khans' might have worked, in the same way 'Vikings' would and has garnered more public interest than simply 'Ragnar Lodbrok' would have. You often have to play a bit of a fine line on relying on people's popular perceptions, even if they're ill informed, because few will bother to make research outside of trailers (if they even bother to watch those), and the popular perception in the west of the Mongols is either invaders from the east, or good old Genghis himself. And since neither is what the show aimed for, if mostly for being the wrong time period, the easy way out is to involve the historical westerner. I figure they could have named it Xanadu. I don't think the show's set at his Summer Palace (only watched episode one, and it wasn't clear to me), but if the show's going to be about the setting more than the characters, they could do worse than name it after a famous place.
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Dec 15, 2014 13:02
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It's seriously odd that nobody hasn't done a big-budget Genghis Khan show yet. Maybe because like every other episode would be a a massive battle, siege or sacking once they got out of the steppe 
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Dec 15, 2014 15:50
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DarkCrawler posted:It's seriously odd that nobody hasn't done a big-budget Genghis Khan show yet. Maybe because like every other episode would be a a massive battle, siege or sacking once they got out of the steppe The court of Kublai has its interesting moments, yeah. The funny thing about Ariq in the show is by the time Marco Polo gets to the court the guy has been dead for over five years. We might get the first invasion of Japan next season, which would be pretty rad.
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Dec 15, 2014 16:13
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"Court of Khan" "Silk Road" "Kublai" Yeah I can't think of a better title. It is entirely possible that the showrunner really was more fascinated with Marco than Kublai, and that Kublai actually being the more interesting character happened by accident. enraged_camel posted:I don't see how house of cards has Mary Sue characters? Everyone on the show is hosed up one way or another and they make lots of mistakes and suffer failures. I already find a character like this show's Kublai Khan more interesting, even though we've seen this before in countless shows like Game of Thrones, Kings, etc. (I'm actually getting a huge "Kings" vibe between a newcomer to the royal court; and a king still fresh off consolidating his power and effecting his great vision for the world. Not to mention the effeminate son/heir, though that's fairly common archetype.) Kublai is clearly shown to be intelligent, but not omnipotent of everyone's motives and actions. He's ruthless, but not completely irredeemable and arbitrary. Before this show, like most people I always thought Genghis as the more interesting Khan. Even if this show takes big liberties; I'm starting to reevaluate this impression. Echo Chamber fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 16:13
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enraged_camel posted:It starts out as a dumb "guy falls in love with girl he can't have" story but turns out to be a lot deeper about half-way through. I watched through the show and i can't say i appreciate how it was deeper or really related to the story but maybe i missed some important dialogue or something (it can happen when marathoning a show like this). I get the fact that she is actually a peasant, etc, i just felt that she was a super-weak character overall, especially when compared to pretty much every other woman in the show. quote:Jingim's antagonism may seem shallow on the surface, but later on you learn that it stems from a deep identity crisis. Remember, he's only half-Mongolian, which makes him question himself and make others question him. His antagonism is a necessary front for hiding his more sensitive nature from the pure-blood Mongolians in the court. 100% with you on that, I actually felt that Jingim's character was quite convincing in rooting his apparent spoilt-ness on something that made sense. Is it possible that the show is named after Polo because it plans to eventually target other aspects of his life, after the Khan's court?
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Dec 15, 2014 19:59
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shodanjr_gr posted:Is it possible that the show is named after Polo because it plans to eventually target other aspects of his life, after the Khan's court? That would be super-lame considering they skipped his 1000-or-so-page journey to Khan's court. If they wanted to tell the tale of Marco Polo they could have but they clearly decided not to.
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Dec 15, 2014 20:24
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ufarn posted:I understand the impetus of it, but going from that to trying to kill Marco Polo just puts it in the temper-tantrum category - especially if we're to empathize with him and see an inevitable redemption for the character. The conflict between him and Polo comes from Jinghim being raised in the Chinese/settler ways in order to be a better diplomat and the future ruler of an increasingly cosmopolitan empire. However, this alienates him from Kublai, the father who put him down that path in the first place. Polo is a European but he is a traveler and forms a bond with Kublai who was raised in the nomadic Mongolian ways. So you have a son who becomes estranged from the father who wanted him to become civilized and sees a stranger win the fatherly affection he never received. You can see Jinghim's actor, Remy Hii, talk about this in interviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5nLrze5F0w
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Dec 15, 2014 22:45
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Four episodes in, I wish Kublai Khan was my dad.  Seriously though he's a hugely enjoyable character, and does a good job carrying the show all on his own. Can't believe it's the dude from Prometheus playing him. That's either a stellar makeup job or in incredible on-set buffet.
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Dec 15, 2014 23:01
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I like how all the online review whining seems fixated on Marco Polo not being god tier like Game of Thrones. After watching a few episodes of the show it gave me a similar quality feel to Vikings, in that despite all the nagging flaws it still has enough interesting characters and fun twists to keep me watching. Plus all the random hilarious bits like the nude kung fu scene, tuvian throat sining and also praying mantis fights.
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Dec 16, 2014 00:06
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Bound feet 
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Dec 16, 2014 00:08
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[quote="Echo Chamber" post=""438997158"] I already find a character like this show's Kublai Khan more interesting, even though we've seen this before in countless shows like Game of Thrones, Kings, etc. (I'm actually getting a huge "Kings" vibe between a newcomer to the royal court; and a king still fresh off consolidating his power and effecting his great vision for the world. Not to mention the effeminate son/heir, though that's fairly common archetype.) Kublai is clearly shown to be intelligent, but not omnipotent of everyone's motives and actions. He's ruthless, but not completely irredeemable and arbitrary. Before this show, like most people I always thought Genghis as the more interesting Khan. Even if this show takes big liberties; I'm starting to reevaluate this impression. [/quote] The actor owns too selling the role as being on a godlike figure on the outside but deeply flawed especially in things such as decision making. Plus there's the sense that Kubli like Marco was forced into the situation by circumstances.
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Dec 16, 2014 00:18
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