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Barbarians [Netflix]

mTk

mTk

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Just finished watching 1/6 episodes.
There are a lot of things to like.
"Seeing a Roman legionnaire shout out angry orders and give someone attitude and snarky replies in Latin is one of the best, most unexpected surprises of the show." - Chris Smith
True. Just something really cool about that. I mean, they could be speaking "Wookie" for al I know, but the fact it is Latin is immersive. And the German barbarians only speak German so activate <subtitles>.
Then there is the scenery. It looks like a heavily wooded forest. Like it is supposed to.
I always smile when I see a bunch of men marching around in very realistic looking Roman army stuff. I'm smiling a lot here.
And then there is...uh...well, that's about it. After that it is pretty much just an ancient soap opera.
What tipped me off was early on a barbarian is put to death for refusing to kiss the eagle. OK. Uh, wait! He's beheaded by a two-handed swing of a gladius. :oops:
Then there is Gen./Govenor Publius Quinctilius Varus. Bad Roman. Bad, bad, bad. "They must learn." - Varus
Then there is the overtly ambitious Centurion. Bad Centurion, bad, bad Centurion!
Then, there is another Roman officer of undefined rank. Bad, bad...uh, wait. No. Loyal Roman. Loyal. loyal...sorta good Roman. With a secret.
Then there is Thusnelda, who with 2 of here friends, and her lover, steal a Roman eagle from a Roman camp housing 3 legions. WTF!?
Thusnelda is a Queen Boudica wannabe, but couldn't carry Lagertha's...anything. It would help a lot if she could act as her part requires more than a pretty face and pouty lips. She can't.
It's fair to say that it may not all be her fault. The writers have gone into protective custody.
I'm betting the eventual battle scenes will be good and that hope is what will carry me through this. Even though I've been cheering for the losing side from the first episode.
Probably worth your time to watch this since it is original at least.
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I'm in 5/6 -- it's okay -- a little bit of stereotypical arrogant Romans as strutting ancient Nazi occupation force dudes -- the old Roman Latin is very cool -- and cool to see Roman looking genuine 9although a few of the legionaries extras look a little too well-fed for front-line soldiers.

As a German speaker I find the mostly accent-free and dialect-free modern German of most of the Barbarians rather jarringly anachronistic.

Story very so-so ... Last Kingdom did a better job.

Hard for writers not to see these ancient conflicts through modern nationalistic eyes.

Looking forward to final battle episode though.
 
Sort of, well i almost, i mean - to be honest i couldn't get past the first episode. I'd hoped for something grittier than this offering but the Roman armour is a bit too shiny for my liking.
Although i was impressed by the Latin element and i'm told it is authentic Latin - Cicero/Augustinian era. Not the ecclesiastical version which is used today.

"Maximus - the general who became a slave. The slave who killed an emperor with a rubber sword"
 
"...but the Roman armour is a bit too shiny for my liking."
Not necessarily inaccurate. Most everything I've read suggests the legions were a bit fanatical with appearance. If a soldier showed up to formation with
dirty or rusted armor he'd better have hoped not to have been spotted by his Optio or Centurion! It was part of the army mystique if you will. They used it
as intimidation towards their enemies. Imagine a Gaul warrior looking across the field at the first line of Roman cohorts and is temporarily blinded by the soldiers
helmets. Then he looks around at his guys and sees a bunch of dirty, scruffy, poorly armored and equipped "warriors." Battle is pretty much over before it starts.
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I still have about 1/2 hr of the last episode to go and my general opinion is that I was basically disappointed. I mean, for the most part nothing of interest happens.
Lots of talking and whining by the Germans about how bad the Romans are. They forget that just moments before they were all trying to kill each other and steal their stuff.
The last episode has the "big" battle. But it's kinda big as in a Richard Sharpe battle. The budget shows around the edges. I did like seeing the assembled legion formations
on the march, but that's not enough to carry the show (for me). Or for me to be able to recommend it.
 
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I watched the entire first season, thought it was quite good to be honest, I enjoyed it.
 
sspoom said:
It was better than Hollywood stuff I enjoyed it.
Click to expand...
Exactly! My wife and I watch mostly foreign stuff on Amazon and Netflix, we find it almost always better than the stuff outta Hollywood. My wife enjoys “period” stuff, without cell phones.
 
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