Jump to content

‘Barbarians’: Netflix Historical Action Series (Roman Imperial campaign of Germania)


AncalagonTheBlack

Recommended Posts

‘Barbarians’: High-Octane First Trailer For Netflix Historical Action Series

Barbarians | Official Teaser | Netflix

https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/german-historical-drama-barbarians-coming-to-netflix-in-october-2020/

Quote

The first season and all six episodes of Barbarians will be available to stream on Netflix on Friday, 23rd of October.

During the battle of the Teutoburg forest in 9 AD the fates of three lives are connected to each other when the Germanic tribes attempted to halt the spread of the Roman Empire.

What is the plot of Barbarians?

The historical-drama takes place in the year 9 A.D, during the Roman Imperial campaign of Germania. Three Roman legions and its auxiliaries are led by Publius Quinctilius Varus, while Arminius, a Germanic Chieftain educated in roman military tactics, unites the Germanic tribes against their Southern invaders. Moving against the Roman legions before they strike, Araminius leads the Germanic tribes in a devasting ambush that would alter the course of history forever.
Is the story from the Germanic or Roman perspective?

The story will be told from the POV of the Germanic tribes.

In an interview with the German news site DWDL, Rachel Eggebeen, the Director of International Originals at Netflix had the following to say:

    We know the Roman perspective because writings have been handed down from the Romans. But not from the Germanic side. The team at Gaumont has worked closely with historians, but at the same time also developed a great story with deep characters.

Created by Arne Nolting, Jan-Martin Scharf and Andreas Heckmann, the largely German-language series will hone in on the destinies of three young people whose fates are interconnected.

Vikings director Steve Saint Ledger directs with Barbara Eder. The ensemble cast includes David Schütter (Charlie’s Angels), Laurence Rupp (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) and Bernhard Schütz (Sense8).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lol, as much as I should support a German production or the playing around with languages, I can't help but think it a bit childish. Germanics speaking modern Standard High German and Romans speaking like Cicero was writing isn't exactly as atmospheric as they might think it is. Though maybe it's just because the main language is German and they made the Romans speak Latin to make them more alien? I guess that only works if they avoid having any Roman main characters at all.

That aside, knowing the story of Arminius I guess there will be a lot of backstabbing to be had.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is a very cool moment in history to base a show around and there's a lot of potential. However, I think you can see from the trailer that this isn't going to be high budget; which is fine, but that, combined with the language issue, means that I think this is going to be very cheesy.

Also very cheesy from the trailer: "THE BATTLE THAT CHANGED HISTORY." Definitely true from a Germanic perspective, since the Romans soon after stopped making a concerted effort to expand east of the Rhine, but... even though it was a big deal to lose this many soldiers ("Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!"), the Roman empire ultimately chugged along fine after the loss. I wonder if they'll go down to the death of Arminius, eventually (sorry, spoilers).

One other thing I'm a bit wary about, especially combined with the use of German language: celebrating Arminius and the ancient Germanic peoples as representatives of the spirit of the German Volk became a key part of German nationalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Especially with increasing neo-Nazi activities in Germany (not to mention the rest of the world), it'd be kind of nice for the showrunners to avoid those same narratives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Romans vs the Germans all the time; Charlemagne vs the Germans all the time.  Lots of battles.  The Roman era Germans become Romanized and the Carolingian era Germans become Frankish. The Franks were Germans themselves, so to speak. Remarkably, the Christian religion as part of both empires, played a big role.

That is one hell of a long span of time to have the same forces in play.  But that too is a truth of history.  What was in play in the history of the US was in play from the gitgo -- slave vs free -- is still in play, though the texture etc. may have changed, it's still about those determined on both religious intolerance and racial inferiority owning the country with both those conditions firmly as part of the system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a sucker for these types of shows and will give this a shot, but this is definitely going to suck.

On 9/23/2020 at 8:04 PM, Corvinus85 said:

I think it looks interesting. I only have 'Dark' to go by as far as German productions go, so I don't expect this to be a huge budget show. At least it looks better than that 'Britannia' show. 

This is going to blow even harder :p At least Britannia had Kelly Reilly.

On 9/23/2020 at 6:52 PM, Caligula_K3 said:

One other thing I'm a bit wary about, especially combined with the use of German language: celebrating Arminius and the ancient Germanic peoples as representatives of the spirit of the German Volk became a key part of German nationalism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Especially with increasing neo-Nazi activities in Germany (not to mention the rest of the world), it'd be kind of nice for the showrunners to avoid those same narratives.

I'm glad someone pointed this out! Fucking Herman celebrations is not what we need right now. I'm pretty sure that they'll fall in those pitfalls though. This trailer was super melodramatic ("The greatest betrayal in history"? Like this doesn't even crack the top 10), you have people from Vikings involved and the minefield of Nazi history. Trainwreck in the making.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Heartofice said:

That trailer tells me nothing about the show.

 

I can’t even remember the last good show or movie I saw based on that period. There have been so many let downs over the years. 

Spartacus. Before that Rome. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Heartofice said:

Never a fan of Spartacus , and Rome was A LONG time ago 

You're missing out. It's a surprisingly good show for the way it started.

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

That may be, but season 1 was a big psychedelic mess.

But Kelly Reilly though :crying: Respect her authority! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Yes, I forgot there was a thread and commented about it on the Watch thread. It was fine, and certainly easy to binge at only 6 episodes.

It was fairly accurately historically, though there were some missteps or just silly moments. I had a problem with some of the editing and directing. There were some nausea inducing scenes, for no reason at all. 

Edit: the show's title is without 'The'

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great show about a history defining event. One of the most fear-inducing horror battles in history thanks to the overall setting. 
 

I am not a fan of counterfactual history but the ramifications of Teutoburg Forrest are immense. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched ep 1-5, so far at least in a historical sense, there are no major slips. They are overselling Tusnelda as some kind of Lagertha 2.0, but whatever. We know very little about the actual battle (except that it is very likely that it didn't happen in the Teutoburg Forest); I actually liked the dynamic between Arminius and Varus and the backstabbing and bickering between the tribes.

I terms of actual historical impact, I think the ultimately unsuccesful campaigns of Germanicus had a much greater impact, his near defeat at the Pontes Longi and Idistaviso, his only very narrow victory at the Angrivarian wall and of course, his massive losses in the North Sea just made it too costly; the Romans just occupied the "good" parts east of the Rhine (Dekumatland), fortified it and waited for the Arminian coalition to self-destruct, which it promptly did after his death. I wonder if there's going to be a season two about Germanicu's campaigns (where, according to legend, Arminius met his pro-Roman brother and had a shouting match with him across the Weser river).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...