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Netflix's new epic drama - 'Marco Polo'


AncalagonTheBlack

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OK. After finishing the final episode, I feel a little satisfied. It seemed like they tied up the loose ends well.


I did enjoy Jingim taking a fall, that annoying brat deserved it. Plus the cool medieval trebuchets, improvised by Marco were the final saving grace, I felt. Although I wish they stopped making Marco do martial arts, which he

sucks at.


I would now watch a second season, if they came out with one.


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OK. After finishing the final episode, I feel a little satisfied. It seemed like they tied up the loose ends well.

I did enjoy Jingim taking a fall, that annoying brat deserved it. Plus the cool medieval trebuchets, improvised by Marco were the final saving grace, I felt. Although I wish they stopped making Marco do martial arts, which he

sucks at.

I would now watch a second season, if they came out with one.

Season 2 has been confirmed.

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OK. After finishing the final episode, I feel a little satisfied. It seemed like they tied up the loose ends well.

I did enjoy Jingim taking a fall, that annoying brat deserved it. Plus the cool medieval trebuchets, improvised by Marco were the final saving grace, I felt. Although I wish they stopped making Marco do martial arts, which he

sucks at.

I would now watch a second season, if they came out with one.

To be fair, they showed Marco being bad at Martial Arts. :)

If he had taken down Siado, or even landed a single hit, I'd be rolling my eyes. But Marco got his butt handed to him pretty well at the end. Even 100 Eyes had a hard time taking Siado down.

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Marco Polo's romance either needs to stop entirely or slow down incredibly. As it is now, the two have the romantic chemistry of two pieces of cardboard held together by rainwater, with the added detraction of the white, Western Marco Polo trying to save the poor, oppressed Asian princess.


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To be fair, they showed Marco being bad at Martial Arts. :)

If he had taken down Siado, or even landed a single hit, I'd be rolling my eyes. But Marco got his butt handed to him pretty well at the end. Even 100 Eyes had a hard time taking Siado down.

Yes, but he shouldn't have been fighting him in the first place, IMO.
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I'm glad there will be a season 2... This show didn't suck... but neither was it great... its was way too big of a budget to be this average, but I don't care since I pay for Netflix regardless... I doubt it will cause them to raise rates... maybe they'll learn and step it up in S2 by concentrating more on writing, and smart storytelling and less on gratuitous Asian cliché's


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Liked it for the most part. Mongols are great Persians are great a scheming Chinese minister is great. Stupid martial arts not great, and the blind martial arts master is terrible, Marco Polo himself is kinda boring and his descriptions really need to be better for how much he's praised for them.



Still though it's an interesting show and I'm stoked for the second season.


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Marco Polo's romance either needs to stop entirely or slow down incredibly. As it is now, the two have the romantic chemistry of two pieces of cardboard held together by rainwater, with the added detraction of the white, Western Marco Polo trying to save the poor, oppressed Asian princess.

Wait for it...

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I'm glad there will be a season 2... This show didn't suck... but neither was it great... its was way too big of a budget to be this average, but I don't care since I pay for Netflix regardless... I doubt it will cause them to raise rates... maybe they'll learn and step it up in S2 by concentrating more on writing, and smart storytelling and less on gratuitous Asian cliché's

This was a good trial run, hopeful they take the comments and expand the good(Mongols), and ignore the bad( pretty much all the other cast)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Okay so I finished The Wire and ended up going back to give Marco another shot and...I still am not exactly a huge fan of it but it does get better. I'm kind of with the majority that the Mongols are infinitely more interesting than any of the other characters, and that the whole Marco/Blue Princess subplot is kind of a bore. I also fucking hate Jingim, but he's kind of fun to hate in a Joffrey/Tiberius sort of way, so I'd actually chalk that up as a plus for the show.



I will say though, I also watched the first season of Peaky Blinders, and I liked it significantly more than MP. I haven't seen a thread on that show yet here but I thought it was pretty good.


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I will say though, I also watched the first season of Peaky Blinders, and I liked it significantly more than MP. I haven't seen a thread on that show yet here but I thought it was pretty good.

I tried to rewatch to see if MP got any better but it was worse the second time around for me.

I have been meaning to check out Peaky Blinders. Is it really that good?

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Peaky Blinders is that good, yes. :)



As for Marco Polo, it seems weird that this didn't work for so many of us, since the template is this book, in which so much of what we thought wasn't the case or possible, turns out to be the case:



Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, by Lawrence Bergreen, a history that puts the Travels into its own historical context, in Europe and the Middle East, and then that long expedition on what would much later be called the Silk Road to Kublai's court. So there' a whole lot about Kublai and his family and Mongol history too. Fascinating material, which I went to after watching the show.

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Peaky Blinders is that good, yes. :)

As for Marco Polo, it seems weird that this didn't work for so many of us, since the template is this book, in which so much of what we thought wasn't the case or possible, turns out to be the case:

Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu, by Lawrence Bergreen, a history that puts the Travels into its own historical context, in Europe and the Middle East, and then that long expedition on what would much later be called the Silk Road to Kublai's court. So there' a whole lot about Kublai and his family and Mongol history too. Fascinating material, which I went to after watching the show.

I love this part of history and I was so hoping that is was going to be good. It just wasn't.

I did love what's her name, the woman that was always wrestling. She had a presence that lit up the screen. She was the only bright spot though.

Thanks for the tip on Peaky Blinders. I will put it on my to watch list.

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I have been meaning to check out Peaky Blinders. Is it really that good?

I've only watched the first season so far but I really enjoyed it. It starts a little slow but once it picks up you get really into it, and the finale was amazing.

I would be interested to learn more of the history of the Marco Polo stuff too. Watching the show made me realize, while Im not exactly an expert on Western history I know pretty much nothing about the history of Asia, though the show did manage to peak my interest in it probably more than my interest in the show itself.

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Disagree with you, sir, about Peaky Blinders. :) One of the best. The second season was equally good, with maybe one of the best final episodes ever, managing to top the final episode of the first season.



Unlike The Fall, a show that should have left it with one season only, and maybe with the one of the most disappointing final episodes ever. Wrong, it was all just wrong!



I'm seeing huge billboards and posters for Vikings season 3 all around the city. I hope as much effort went into writing the season as they've put into promoting it. We saw what happened with all the promo for Netflix's Marco Polo -- everywhere all the time -- but it wasn't very well written, alas.


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  • 2 months later...

Yeah, I suppose so. I mean watching how genocide over my city is being changed with "I welcome you to my Kingdom" was a bit annoying. But, the way they handled entire thing reeks of propaganda. Every opponent is presented as weaker, less honorable etc. And even for fiction, that is a bit too much.

That's why I gave up on Magnificent Century-the Arabic dub had English subtitles, and I would watch those... but it's like the author lacks theory of mind or something. Like they are completely incapable of seeing that Christians and Jews believe in their own causes as much as Muslims do. :shocked:

Also Roxalana/Hurrem Sultan was awful woman. She comes across as having BPD as seen by MRA and PUAs. Yet the show still seems to think she is romantic and lovable. :worried:

Also historically her conversion to Islam was entirely a way of gaining her freedom and marrying the sultan... completely cynical and insincere... but in the show a woman who is the daughter of a Ukrainian Orthodox priest just converts to Islam because because... :ack: :bs:

Oh and the rape apologetic pissed me off. Really the Hungarian assassin lady was walking around in a harem, that is staffed by nutless african men (except they have all been white washed and the grisly role of the Arabic slave trade played down), and it's her fault if suddenly one of these white eunuchs turns out to have balls and tries to rape her??????? :bs:

----

Marco Polo is much better even if the sex and the orgies is annoying (and very out of sync with the Korean and Chinese serials I have seen that are set in various dynasties)

the first few episodes are annoying and sort of suffer from having a white protagonist, but by episode 3 you realise that Kublai Khan is the hero and Marco Polo is just a pair of eyes.

Albeit a sweet good natured pair of eyes, I am very glad they used an Italian actor to portray him, rather than some charmless American/chisel jawed American hero/whiny American nerd boy.... sure there are scenes where the script writers guff up (like having Marco turn his back on the Kublai in formal court and the scene where he freaks out in court when his father abandons him) but the actor brings charm, insouciance and politeness to the role...

Wackily I think it is realistic, given the historical setting, that Marco would be happy to serve a mass murdering warlord, since Medieval people, like Turkish Drama writers, also seemed to lack theory of mind... I once read a 17th century translation of Josephus, and it was like the author was incapable of understanding why monotheists would want to rebel against a corrupt, idolatrous, sadistic, foreign empire that was taxing them...

the actor playing Byamba is hot.

Jingim's actor does not look Mongolian.

Brendan Wong's performance is amazing. He manages to be the world's sexiest fat, middle aged, Chinese man.

Does not look like Byamba's father.

they got foot binding wrong: there were lots of rituals surrounding it.

Also why would Meilin need to be a child prostitute if she could fight like that?

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Disagree with you, sir, about Peaky Blinders. :) One of the best. The second season was equally good, with maybe one of the best final episodes ever, managing to top the final episode of the first season.

Yeah I liked Season 2 of Peaky maybe even more than the first. The last 10 minutes or so of the finale were fucking insane

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Hmmm, so I should watch Peaky Blinders. Two people who share a lot of my tastes have recommended it now and I need a show to fill the gap that Vikings leaves in my schedule.


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