I wanted to mention a few more points that wouldn't fit into my micro-review tweet...
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| Screenshots from the Amazon Prime TV show for illustration of this review (fair use). |
Fantasy is not my cup of tea, so I started watching with fairly low expectations. Friends who'd read the books were enthusiastic, so I checked it out, just in case it's the new Game of Thrones (GoT). It was alright - sufficiently well made to be watchable. Somewhat interesting, if more for it's cultural links.
It seems like Amazon would certainly like it to be the new GoT. The show logo has a similar feel and the dialogue explicitly talks about a human "dragon" who will "break the wheel". But the character building and human intrigue is more simplistic.
It is probably better likened to Lord of the Rings (LotR): the magic and monsters have significant visual similarities and are unleashed right from the first episode. So, without the huge budget of those movies, this looks only OK. There's some stilted acting amongst the core cast, coupled with very awkward production in one instance, at least. So, overall, suspension of disbelief is greatly reduced compared with GoT. It's show about magic stuff in a pretty medieval setting.
