Support NeoGAF

[Hamlet]

Doesn't look like this has been posted yet - Netflix Exclusive Behind the Scenes Look at Marco Polo

 

[ivysaur12]

Yeah, they spent $90 million on this show. There's no way they're burying it.

I'm excited. Always up for these historical shows.

They're releasing it in the dead of winter with no marketing. Maybe they're just pushing international. Or maybe they hated it and they're seeing the testing showing audiences did too and they're cutting their losses.

I'm also guessing the production was never meant to cost 90 million. Also, Weinstein spent 90 million to make it, according to reports. The licensing fees Netflix paid are probably FAR less.

 

[Tugatrix]

Any reviews?

 

[andycapps]

I'm hyped regardless of the reviews.

This. I think it looks good.

 

[berzeli]

They're releasing it in the dead of winter with no marketing. Maybe they're just pushing international. Or maybe they hated it and they're seeing the testing showing audiences did too and they're cutting their losses.

I'm also guessing the production was never meant to cost 90 million. Also, Weinstein spent 90 million to make it, according to reports. The licensing fees Netflix paid are probably FAR less.

I've seen some ads (mostly online) and advertorial-style content for it over here but there hasn't been an all out push like they did for Orange is the New Black. So not sure if I would say that they're going for the international angle or well at least not in Sweden.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Moroccan explorer who traveled much of Africa and Asia. Basically why you'll never see a Hollywood movie about him. Although they'd probably just get Dominic Cooper to play him.

Right. I mean, Netflix (Weinstein/whoever) isn't going to make an expensive show about someone no one has ever heard about.

Any reviews?

Only a couple. Once the floodgates open I'll post them regularly.

 

[Cornballer]

- Village Voice:

Despite its sumptuous displays of feudal opulence -- cavalries, silk gowns, all the naked female extras money can buy -- Netflix's Marco Polo feels distinctly like scraps. Turgid, fatuous, and humorless, the streaming site's newest series is a grave miscalculation of what has made Game of Thrones, its obvious model, such a TV phenomenon. Marco Polo borrows from the HBO institution its most sensationalistic and/or problematic qualities -- its unforgiving violence, aggressive male gaze, exoticizing of non-Western cultures -- while neglecting the nuts and bolts that make Thrones great: its urgent plotting, vivid characterizations, and meticulous world-building.

- Ken Tucker @ YahooTV:

Almost every noise made in Marco Polo is sound and fury signifying very little. I realize that's a paraphrase of Shakespeare, when I should be paraphrasing Coleridge's "Kubla Khan,” but really, it doesn't matter. You’d probably be better off using your Netflix subscription to watch your favorite Orange Is the New Black inmate's backstory one more time.

 

[Sober]

That does not sound good, it basically just reinforce the fact Marco Polo sounds more like a business decision than a creative one.

 

[Sinatar]

This sounds more Sparatcus then Game of Thrones.

I'm ok with this.

 

[slit]

So is this going to be the Netflix "Game of Thrones" or is it being hyped way too much? I know they're spending a lot of money on it.

 

[backflip10019]

- Village Voice:
- Ken Tucker @ YahooTV:

Yikes. Neither of those are very complimentary. I'll go into this with tempered expectations.

 

[Frog-fu]

I'm in.

 

[Cornballer]

- Deadline video review

Empires, betrayal, bloodshed and seduction on an epic scale. While it may not be the most original show out there on streaming-video platforms or otherwise, it is a feast to be savored.

- Tim Goodman's review for THR

The Bottom Line: A middling mess, complete with random accents, slow story and kung fu

 

[Cow Mengde]

I think the trailer looks stupid, but might check out an episode or two.

Oh my god, they have real Asians in this?



Whhhaaatttttt?!

*edit: Though, I want to quote the first thing my friend said when he saw this:

They have to be authentic when you have a hero white guy saving them. How else would they get that across their superior whiteness if they didn't hire real Asians?

 

[RatskyWatsky]

So is this going to be the Netflix "Game of Thrones" or is it being hyped way too much? I know they're spending a lot of money on it.

Yes. Yes.

*edit: Though, I want to quote the first thing my friend said when he saw this:

Why shouldn't the white guy bang the Asian girl? You got somethin against interracial relations, bro?

- Tim Goodman's review for THR

there’s a bevy of naked women on hand (of course, the men stay mostly clothed).

booooooooo

 

[RatskyWatsky]

- Entertainment Weekly

Marco Polo's pilot blows. The premise is stale, a riff on the Western-white-guilt stranger-in-a-strange-land-goes-native genre.... Somewhere in the middle of episode 2, though, Marco Polo becomes surprisingly watchable. The filmmaking becomes bolder.

- SFGate

There is a lot of violence in it, and a whole lot of nudity, and there are superb performances, all of which are undermined by ponderously self-important writing and direction. By the fifth episode, fortunately, Fusco et al give in and “Marco Polo” rocks with lots of action, much of it in the “Tiger/Dragon” slo-mo style. At this point, “Marco Polo” breaks loose from its dingy lethargy.

The fifth and sixth episodes suggest that “Marco Polo” may belatedly get over itself in the home stretch, which may be OK since this is a streamed show with multiple episodes available at once. But you still have to give viewers a compelling reason to keep going from the get-go.

 

[Cornballer]

- Onion A|V Club review

It’s a perfectly valid strategy for Netflix to add a Game Of Thrones-like show to its roster, especially one with as much international appeal as Marco Polo. But Marco Polo doesn’t stack up to the political maneuverings and bloody battles within the Seven Kingdoms, and so often resembles George R.R. Martin fan-fiction, it seems wiser to revisit the superior show.

 

[Cornballer]

- THR: 'Marco Polo' Actress on Intense Shoot, "Complicated" Love Story

 

[Cornballer]

- Poniewozik's review for Time Magazine:

The series’ problem, too, is how badly it balances its contrasts. Making Marco Polo dumb fun would be just as legitimate as making it weighty historical realism. But the show tries to be both (sort of, though producers freely admit to playing with facts and the timeline), lurching between modes without warning. Sometimes it’s a study of court intrigue, as when we see the Song leaders riven between diehards who want to fight the Khan and those who would sue for peace. Other times, it’s like someone watched the most caricatured Dothraki scenes in the first season of Game of Thrones and asked, “Could we have a show of just this?” Then there’s the obligatory sex, worked in a gracefully as pop-up ads; an orgy montage in the pilot, which intercuts naked, red-lit courtesans with images of Hundred Eyes kung-fu-posing with a cobra, is Orientalist hoohah as pure as the spun silk of distant Cathay.

You can’t say Marco Polo isn’t committed to spectacle and popcorn entertainment, and that may make it a hit worth its price tag. But it reminds me of the Simpsons episode in which Homer gets to design a car that has every feature he wants, and ends up with an expensive monstrosity that includes bubble domes, multiple horns and shag carpeting. It may be that Netflix really knows just what we want. With Marco Polo, it’s giving it to us good and hard.

 

[teruterubozu]

Interesting reviews. I get the sense that there's some inescapable corniness.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Judging by the reviews, the Game of Thrones comparisons seem pretty apt.

 

[4Tran]

The funny thing about the Game of Thrones comparison is that the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or the Water Margin already have all the color and machinations and characters that Netflix would need. Obviously, those adaptations would be much harder sells because there aren't obviously relatable characters for a European/North American audience. The producers settled for Marco Polo because he's a well known name, and he allows viewers to learn about a new culture as he learns about it. The problem is that it's a storyline that's very prone to veering into Orientalism. And it looks like Orientalism is in the show in spades. Hopefully, there will be something worthwhile to watch out of it because I'd like to see this show succeed.

 

[RatskyWatsky]

The producers settled for Marco Polo because he's a well known name, and he allows viewers to learn about a new culture as he learns about it. The problem is that it's a storyline that's very prone to veering into Orientalism. And it looks like Orientalism is in the show in spades. Hopefully, there will be something worthwhile to watch out of it because I'd like to see this show succeed.

Just throwing this out there -

the critics have only seen the first few episodes of the season, so maybe the show (and I'm saying this without having seen it, obviously) is from Marco's perspective and maybe it's only initially entrenched in Orientalism because that's how Marco views it, but as he familiarizes himself with the culture, things even out a bit?

Or maybe not, but I don't think people should write it off for being Orientalist before we know the whole picture.

 

[teruterubozu]

Considering that Marco Polo was the genesis of Western Orientalism, I don't think it's so out of place.

 

[SteveWinwood]

So does this hit at midnight or...

 

[Rymuth]

You forgot to add Kung Fu in the title.

 

[mid83]

I'm all in on this show despite the reviews.

Seems like it's right up my alley.

 

[Draconian]

So does this hit at midnight or...

Should be 12:00 AM PT.

 

[Cornballer]

A couple of reminders from the OP:

All 10 episodes of the first season will be available at 12:01 AM PT on December 12, 2014.

Since all the episodes are going up at once, we'll follow the rules set in the previous Netflix original series threads and spoiler tag (and label) all spoilers for the first two weeks, until December 26. Please spoiler tag any discussion and label which episode you're talking about outside of the tags: e.g. Ep 5:

Spoiler

Marco Polo dies in the year 1324

 

[rexor0717]

I'm confident that I'm really going to enjoy this show.

 

[bobbytkc]

Ghengis is long dead during the series, though.

Okay. I don't know my history lol. Carry on.

 

[exmachina64]

Five hours, huh? Maybe I'll stay up and marathon it.

 

[Chairman Yang]

I'm confident that I'm really going to enjoy this show.

Me too. The subject matter fascinates me. If I can get some awesome visual representations of the history without too many inaccuracies, and maybe some cool action scenes, I'll be content.

 

[Nyx]

It's live now

 

[JHM]

I like Netflix Orginal's, so I give it a shot.

 

[Doug Heffernan]

Wow, this thing is getting butchered in the reviews. Gonna avoid this.
It's a shame because I was looking forward to it.

If you like Game of Thrones, and historical drama, and pay-cable softcore, and martial arts movies (like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, whose sequel Netflix is also making)–and you want them crammed together, narrative sense be damned–you might like this gorgeous but ludicrous saga. But you might also wish Netflix and creator John Fusco had anticipated that you “might like” credible dialogue and characters as well. - Time

Showcasing an unknown is believed, in the present era, to result in a more realistic aura. But in the case of Lorenzo Richelmy, the hunk of inexpressiveness anointed to portray this series' title character, he makes no impact whatsoever, except as living flesh able to grow the perpetual three-day stubble that passes for 21st-century-cool among young men. - Yahoo

Polo is so replete with medieval warfare, lopped-off heads, gratuitous nudity, and persnickety period detail, it pleads to be compared with HBO’s Game Of Thrones, a far superior show by nearly every measure. And if the show is Netflix’s latest offensive against HBO, its biggest rival, it portends a war in which the streaming service is the House Stark to the cable network’s House Lannister. - AV Club

Ouch.

 

[Oxn]

Wow, this thing is getting butchered in the reviews. Gonna avoid this.
It's a shame because I was looking forward to it.







Ouch.

Why would you avoid it? Cant check out 1 or 2 episodes to make up your own mind?

Anyways..... I just finished the first 2 episodes. Not great but definitely watchable. Episode 1 is kinda slow, and I feel like so far Marco is not even the star of the show.

Will give more impressions later.

 

[Jyester]

Saw the first episode without seeing any reviews - boring, Orientalist nonsense. I really hoped it would be good, because the premise sounds great. Are these reviews based on the entire show, or just the first couple of episodes? I don't really see the show turning itself around, but maybe it's just off to a rough start...

 

[Father_Brain]

This sounds really, really bad. Almost as though it's parodying GoT's worst excesses with Orientalism and depiction of female characters.

Lead actor is hot, at least.

 

[Cornballer]

Are these reviews based on the entire show, or just the first couple of episodes?

They reviewed based on the first 5-6 episodes, iirc.

 

[Frustrated_me]

Shame this is getting bad reviews, I really wanted Netflix to do well with this one.

 

[numble]

Why would you avoid it? Cant check out 1 or 2 episodes to make up your own mind?

Anyways..... I just finished the first 2 episodes. Not great but definitely watchable. Episode 1 is kinda slow, and I feel like so far Marco is not even the star of the show.

Will give more impressions later.

Do you watch every TV series for at least 1 or 2 episodes? That is really impressive.

 

[1138]

The first episode was a bit mediocre, but the second one impressed me. At least dont give up on the show until you have watched the second episode!

 

[Future PhaZe]

I have no idea what they were thinking when they greenlit this.

 

[4Tran]

Just throwing this out there -

the critics have only seen the first few episodes of the season, so maybe the show (and I'm saying this without having seen it, obviously) is from Marco's perspective and maybe it's only initially entrenched in Orientalism because that's how Marco views it, but as he familiarizes himself with the culture, things even out a bit?

Or maybe not, but I don't think people should write it off for being Orientalist before we know the whole picture.

With Marco Polo as the main viewpoint character, it's pretty much inevitable. This project sounds like it would have been far more intriguing and nuanced if they had made Kublai the protagonist.

 

[Doug Heffernan]

I have no idea what they were thinking when they greenlit this.

When you factor in that it's one of the most expensive shows ever produced, that makes it even more puzzling.
What a colossal mistake. I hope they don't raise prices because of this disaster.

 

[Chairman Yang]

I have no idea what they were thinking when they greenlit this.

When you factor in that it's one of the most expensive shows ever produced, that makes it even more puzzling.
What a colossal mistake. I hope they don't raise prices because of this disaster.

Greenlighting the concept makes a lot of sense, on paper. It has lots of potential international appeal (that fits with Netflix's desire for quick international growth), it has a setting and premise that can effectively show off a big budget and be ripe for new seasons and spinoffs, and it could capture a coveted audience not currently being served by Game of Thrones.

If the show sucks and doesn't resonate with audiences, that's more a failure of execution, not necessarily a flawed strategy.

 

[Oxn]

Do you watch every TV series for at least 1 or 2 episodes? That is really impressive.

Wow what a reach.

The guy said he was really looking forward to watching it, then he sees the bad review and pass.

I would think I would give something a chance that I really anticipated, yeah?

 

[Doug Heffernan]

I would think I would give something a chance that I really anticipated, yeah?

Not when your Netflix queue is as full as mine.
I'd rather give a chance to critically acclaimed shows like Broadchurch and Damages instead of this.

 

[The English Conquistador]

Just finished the first episode. Pretty good so far, I really like it. The last few minutes, apart from obvious reasons, were great and shot very well.