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The Bastard Executioner pilot
Sep. 25th, 2015 03:38 pmI've never seen Sons of Anarchy, and was lukewarm about the premise of The Bastard Executioner (you could practically sense the Grim and Gritty "Realisticness" and Tragically Dead Wife even before the trailers came out) but gave it a chance in hopes that I'd have a new medieval show that I didn't need subtitles to fully understand, and because I actually would like more stories set in this period. Also, I've been surprised by loving shows I didn't expect to love before.
Set in Wales in the 14th Century and focusing on the conflict between the Welsh and English after the Madog ap Llywelyn rebellion. Wilkin Brattle, and English knight, is left for dead on the battlefield, has mystical visions, and several years later, is living in a Welsh village with a pretty, pregnant blonde wife who you know will be dead soon as soon as you see her, because you can already tell it will be That Kind of Show, even if you knew nothing about it going in.
The opening scene is a disjointed flashback that looks like a cheap SyFy movie with Bad FX that takes itself too seriously. For some reason, there's a completely contextless closeup of a woman's naked butt about halfway through the flashback. We were clearly leading up to a Mystical Vision so I was expecting the vision to come in the form of a naked goddess or whatever telling him he has a Special Destiny. Which happens, except that she's fully clothed. Why was there random and contextless (unless by "context" you mean "the further out shot of the naked woman before the closeup to make sure no one missed the fact that they were staring at a woman's naked butt") nudity? Did they just want to make sure they squeezed some nudity into the pilot?
(I mean, on screen nudity isn't my thing, but I don't have any problems with it. Unless it's just there for nudity's sake.)
Mostly, I was bored. It's more concerned with gritty and brutal than characterization. It's historical fiction about mostly fictional characters and heavily implied magic and mystic, prophetic visions and you can mostly tell who the main characters will be by whether or not they appear to own a bathtub (granted, not frequently used, but definitely cleaner) and a hairbrush, but wants to be regarded as giving an accurate portrayal of history because people are dirty and the violence is graphic and women, children and the elderly are brutally murdered to give the able bodied young men a vengeful mission. Based on the pilot, it's another case of a show using "But history!" to justify graphic violence and gore and people being awful and things mostly being about white dudes and women being secondary and/or dead, while using actual history for little more than inspiration and setting.
don't get me wrong, I love tons of historical fiction with loads of inaccuracies and like when things try t be a little closer to actual history, but it's always telling what choices the narrative makes in what "history" it wants to include/emphasize.)
I did get a little more interested when it focused on the apparent female lead, a welsh woman who is married (apparently against her will, but making the best of it) to an English baron (AKA The Villain), but not much more interested.
It has an interesting setting that isn't explored a lot in fiction and the historical conflict is interesting with tons of potential for interesting drama, but the actual show was "meh" for me.
ETA: Also watched the pilot of Minority Report. It was ok? I spent most of it wondering if it was condemning or advocating the precog program, and despite enjoying watching Meagan Good, I didn't really find it very interesting until the last scene. i'll watch more to see how it goes.
Scream Queens is now the only aired pilot I have left to check out, I think.
Set in Wales in the 14th Century and focusing on the conflict between the Welsh and English after the Madog ap Llywelyn rebellion. Wilkin Brattle, and English knight, is left for dead on the battlefield, has mystical visions, and several years later, is living in a Welsh village with a pretty, pregnant blonde wife who you know will be dead soon as soon as you see her, because you can already tell it will be That Kind of Show, even if you knew nothing about it going in.
The opening scene is a disjointed flashback that looks like a cheap SyFy movie with Bad FX that takes itself too seriously. For some reason, there's a completely contextless closeup of a woman's naked butt about halfway through the flashback. We were clearly leading up to a Mystical Vision so I was expecting the vision to come in the form of a naked goddess or whatever telling him he has a Special Destiny. Which happens, except that she's fully clothed. Why was there random and contextless (unless by "context" you mean "the further out shot of the naked woman before the closeup to make sure no one missed the fact that they were staring at a woman's naked butt") nudity? Did they just want to make sure they squeezed some nudity into the pilot?
(I mean, on screen nudity isn't my thing, but I don't have any problems with it. Unless it's just there for nudity's sake.)
Mostly, I was bored. It's more concerned with gritty and brutal than characterization. It's historical fiction about mostly fictional characters and heavily implied magic and mystic, prophetic visions and you can mostly tell who the main characters will be by whether or not they appear to own a bathtub (granted, not frequently used, but definitely cleaner) and a hairbrush, but wants to be regarded as giving an accurate portrayal of history because people are dirty and the violence is graphic and women, children and the elderly are brutally murdered to give the able bodied young men a vengeful mission. Based on the pilot, it's another case of a show using "But history!" to justify graphic violence and gore and people being awful and things mostly being about white dudes and women being secondary and/or dead, while using actual history for little more than inspiration and setting.
don't get me wrong, I love tons of historical fiction with loads of inaccuracies and like when things try t be a little closer to actual history, but it's always telling what choices the narrative makes in what "history" it wants to include/emphasize.)
I did get a little more interested when it focused on the apparent female lead, a welsh woman who is married (apparently against her will, but making the best of it) to an English baron (AKA The Villain), but not much more interested.
It has an interesting setting that isn't explored a lot in fiction and the historical conflict is interesting with tons of potential for interesting drama, but the actual show was "meh" for me.
ETA: Also watched the pilot of Minority Report. It was ok? I spent most of it wondering if it was condemning or advocating the precog program, and despite enjoying watching Meagan Good, I didn't really find it very interesting until the last scene. i'll watch more to see how it goes.
Scream Queens is now the only aired pilot I have left to check out, I think.