Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Cardinal Biggles I know the series starts with a disclaimer that it's just a bit of fictional drama, but even so......I've seen two episodes now, and it's very much of the ilk of Britannia, or a lesser version of series such as Vikings, and the Last Kingdom.History? No. Not at all. This is a 'Politically Correct' A Team meets Ivanhoe. Or perhaps Monty Python and the Holy Grail on Speed.? So yes, there are plenty of costumes around to adorn the cast of.... well, not thousands, but ceratinaly several. Watch it as a yarn, not a documentary and you will find much of it very entertaining. The fight scenes were very well done. The American drawl on the Castillian Ambassador perhaps not so much. Don't expect Game of Thrones writing. I think A Team is about the right level to describe the plot depth. The clichés fall thick and fast.So there is the stereotypical Arch-Villain/Evil plotting Advisor dude, complete with the regulation Sheriff of Nottingham beard, causing underhand deeds to be attempted on our Heroic Templar Master. This latter is always clad in full Knightly garb of full mail armour, steel Spaulders with sword and surcoat. Doing the dishes must have been a real bugger.The damsels are all the required "strong, independent, determined" type, not averse to telling the King she'll be choosing her own husband, thank you, nor to picking up a spear and kebabing a bad guy, saving Our Hero's life at a critical battle moment.The Apprentice Hero is a suitably headstrong "youth" seeking wild Revenge against the bad guys for doing in his fiancée. And yes, obviously he will become the squire and sidekick to our hero. The dateline seems very flexible, but it is very understanding and modern of our 14th Century French King that he is not in the least bit curious nor surprised that he has somehow sired a mixed race daughter. Happened all the time in Medieval marriages.... Mind you, if the Pope can be a Yorkshireman then anything is possible. I won't bore you with more details, just to say that the script is very formulaic and predictable. Your kids will love it. History buffs or those used to decent historical drama - not so much. At least there's no Blackadder in it. Put it on when you get back from the pub and want something mindless to watch while you boozily nosh on your takeaway. I'm not rushing to record the series. There is better to watch.

lloyd150 A great premise let's do a show on the final years of the Knights Templar. Not been done in mainstream tv yet. Good true story with plenty intrigue, plotting and murders. But wait why research an interesting historical story., when we can do drama by numbers. Let's even make it politically relevant for today, and forget the characters live with very different morals than today. Grand Master sworn to chastiy does not work as we need a love interest. French married Queen would be great. Also let's do a murder mystery in medieval times.Why, why , why? Go with the original idea and take a risk. Do not bother with this rubbish and read a book about it.

ialoreq-531-363281 The series is plagued with historical inaccuracies. The most shocking of all is the reference to the kingdom of Catalonia, which never existed. Catalonia was a county (not a country), part of the kingdom of Aragon. In 1469 the kingdom of Aragon and the kingdom of Castile, joined through the marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, a.k.a. the Catholic Monarchs, thus becoming the kingdom of Spain, which remains to our days. Other narrative is manipulative. I suspect this series has been somehow influenced or even funded by the Catalan separatist movement, which spend several tens of millions of euros every year (out of Spain's taxpayers) in propaganda and manipulation.

Lammasuswatch Like many other reviewers here, I was looking forward to this series after seeing the trailers. The story of the Templars and especially of their downfall through the greed and intrigue of French King Philip IV has long fascinated me. And I was at first intrigued at the suggestion that the Holy Grail was going to play a part. But even in the 1st episode warning bells were clanging for me, when we find out senior Templar Landry is having an affaire with the French Queen. The French Queen?! And of course, Landry just happens to be King Philip's best bud. Now knowing that in historical reality Phillipe Le Bel (Philip the Fair) was the French King who persecuted the Templars with a series of outrageous accusations, just so he could steal all their vast wealth for himself, I could already guess from that 1st episode that this cheap, unnecessary and historically ridiculous contrivance is going to be the main excuse for the King to turn on the Templars some time down the track. As if he needed this? Instead of the quite simple fact that Philip the Fair was anything but, and one of the most greedy and soulless Kings of France in a line of greedy and soulless Kings of France. Was this going to be the laziest of writing?But I've stayed with the series to see how it developed despite the ever stranger plot developments, often embarrassingly cornball dialogue, and the increasingly comic depiction of major bad guy Councillor de Nogaret. Now the historical Nogaret was an exceedingly unprincipled schemer and villain, but in this he's like a medieval Bond villain, at the centre of every intrigue. I'm half expecting him to turn up with a top hat, twirling his moustache and saying, "Nyah-ha-ha".And with writing like this there are few real surprises. I don't think any plot point has happened that wasn't telegraphed beforehand (with some so obvious it was almost insulting).And the writers have almost no characters behave in ways real people would behave - with the Queen and Landry especially unconvincing. By Episode 5, when Landry has just found out the Queen is pregnant with his child, and that she has dealt with the situation so her pregnancy will not fall under suspicion, this by now Master of the Paris Temple acts like a sullen teenager who watches too many American sitcoms and pleads with her that they could "leave Paris and go somewhere". Groan!It was Episode 5 where I thought, I really can't see myself wasting too much more time on this. One more episode perhaps, but if it's as hokey as it has been, I can't see myself lasting out the ten episodes. Much less waiting for the stake burnings and so on down the track.I did in fact persist to the last episode of Series 1. Some of the episodes from 6 through to 8 were an improvement, where you could actually believe some of what was happening, with some developments quite intriguing. But penultimate Episode 9 took a turn for the worse.And the last episode of the series.... Well, here's this guy Landry who's been made the Master of the Paris Temple, because he's so respected by his brother Templars. And yet, for most of the series and especially in the last 3 episodes or so, every decision he makes is tactically so ludicrous - or simply so selfish - that any loyalty any of his brother Templars could have shown him, or at least kept showing him, is so unbelievable as to be laughable.And while we're on the topic of tactics, what sort of an idiot would put all his soldiers in the middle of a clearing surrounded by woods when you know an army's about to attack you? And all packed tightly together in a circle? Apparently no-one writing or directing this series has heard of archers and bows and arrows or crossbows, all of which would have been devastating when presented with such an invitingly exposed target.And then when Grand Master Jacques de Molay decides to ride to the rescue after all, and stages a cavalry charge with his armoured knights, which initially cuts swathes through the enemy, what does he do next? That's right! They all dismount and give up their huge tactical advantage to fight on foot! And at the end, they've only lost about 30 Templars? Amazing!If there is a Series 2, I certainly won't be watching.I reckon you'd get a lot more out of reading the comic.