Britannia / Amazon Prime (1 Viewer)

[Consigliere]

Anybody watching this? I am two shows in and wondering if it is worth the investment. Gotta have something between Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones.

So far it is a little interesting but not quite as good as similar shows. The weirdest part is the number of tropes they copy:

(1) The guy who played "The Governor" in TWD plays "The General" in Britannia. Exact same character personality, even with a slight Georgia accent. Waiting for him to injure one eye.
(2) The guy who played "The Evil Emperor" in Star Wars plays "The Evil King" in Britannia. Kudos to the ageless Mr. McDiarmid, but when he gets angry his voice is straight from Return of the Jedi.
(3) Pretty rebellious auburn-haired archer who is totally "not Tauriel from the Hobbit."
(4) Tough guy with scarred face plays gruff mentor traveling with young girl learning to fight ("totally not The Hound and Arya").
(5) Various pairs of Roman soldiers giving their best impression of Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus from HBO's Rome.

So they are copying lots of stuff, but at least they are copying stuff that lots of people like.

And, IMHO, a show should either have no naked ladies (so you can watch it with kids) or lots. If you're gonna be naughty then don't be timid about it.

Those who are watching it, what are your thoughts?

 

[Saintman2884]

The Evil Emperor in Star Wars you referenced was Emperor Palpatine. The actress playing his youngest daughter who was elected tribal chief instead of her oldest brother, which generally speaking in pre-Roman Britain was sort of the usual selection process, via promegitnure laws in most ancient kingdoms or dynasties, except the Hittites.

The actual Roman general who conquered Britain for Rome during their full-scale invasion in 43 CE was named Britannicus, by emperor Claudius, he was also the first Roman governor of Britain. Despite how he's depicted as some evil, spiritual monster in the show, Britannicus was a simple Roman general and administrator. Now, the series itself doesn't accurately portray Roman general and future emperor Vespasian in any way accurately, he was a very young general at the time of the Britain invasion, and he served with high distinction during the first wave of Roman conquest and submission, the Druids priests are sort of depicted accurately, we know by archeological record that the Druids priests did most of their learning, official tasks by rote and complete memorization.

There were 3 types of Druid priests: bards, magicians, and shamans. It took bards about 5 years to learn their craft by memorization, magicians about 10 years of hard study, and shamans, the highest, most knowledgeable caste, about 20 years. The Romans had no love for the Druids, that's one thing the series does get very right. Romans had previously encountered Druids and their practices of human sacrifice, placing headless corpses, skulls, bodies, on tops of fortifications in subduing the Celtic tribes in Gaul, Julius Caesar described the many varied activities of the Druid priests in his famous military chronicles, the Gaelic Commentaries. The Roman authorities eventually wiped out the Druid priestly class in 60 CE at island of Mona(modern-day Anglesey) before crushing Boudicca's Revolt near modern-day London(Londinium to the Romans). It will be interesting to see if the show lasts for several more seasons if they touch on how Romans dealt with British Celtic tribes further inland as they moved into the interior of central and northern England and Wales.

The Romans, at least militarily, didn't fully conquer modern-day England and Wales until around 85-90 CE, almost 50 years after the initial landing near modern Kent. Britain, for most ancient Romans was like Alaska is to most Americans today:this wild, untamed, mysterious land full of half-conquered tribes like the Brigantes, Trinivantes, the Iceni(Boudicca's tribe), where evil, untamed spirits roamed large forests, streams, rivers, farms, etc. Keep in mind that 2,000 years ago most of British isles were heavily forested, isolated rural farmlands. The Romans made several military incursions into Scotland (Caledonia) until the late 3rd century, but they never established any permanent cities or settlements. The Romans and later on Romano-British traders did establish lucrative trade networks into Caledonia and Hibernia (Ireland) but it was primarily a business arrangement.

It was similar attitude to how the Romans viewed some of my ancestors, the Germanic tribes inhabiting the lands, territories, in central Europe Tacitus labeled Germania. Most of these later Germanic tribes later had a pivotal role in overrunning Rome's northern frontiers, limes, in early 5th century CE and capturing vast areas in the Western Roman Empire. The German word for emperor, Kaiser, means Caesar. Many 20th century totalitarian dictators like Hitler and Mussolini used ancient Greece and Rome as models to base their overblown, monumental parades, buildings, form of grandeur, style and elegance. Hitler's architect, Albert Speer, was a huge admirer of ancient Roman buildings styles like the hippodromes, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and before Allied WWII bombing raids halted them, Speer was actually working on plans to rebuild a post-war Berlin that would've resembled a modern, Germanic-centric form of weltkapital, or world capital of Germania, based on ancient city of Rome.

 

[Zaphod]

Anybody watching this? I am two shows in and wondering if it is worth the investment. Gotta have something between Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones.

I haven't watched it yet, but its on my list. I just started Last Kingdom this week and I'm liking it so far.

Have you seen Vikings? It's on Prime and if you like Last Kingdom and GOT, you'll probably be interested in it as well.

 

[wyrmer]

Seen it, would not recommend.

 

[Consigliere]

Have you seen Vikings?

Oh yes. The Last Kingdom seems better, as it is more historical and realistic. But Vikings is a unique work with great merit.

If GOT is a 10, I would give The Last Kingdom a 9 and Vikings an 8. So far (three shows in) Britannia is like a 6. Just wondering if those who watched more think it gets better?

 

[BIG E]

I've seen it. It's not great, but not terrible either. They went too heavy into the demon crap. If you don't have anything else to watch it is worth it, but not a must see.