Marco Polo, season one, is beautiful. It's visually stunning. It has a very interesting (although perhaps not compelling) story and some excellent acting (especially by Benedict Wong). But it's lacking. Season one is good - but just good. It's not great.
Despite the obvious lack of actual Mongolian actors, it's pretty well cast. Most of the actors are good - some very, very good - despite no one really getting a whole lot of development. Khan Kublai is by far the most interesting character - but is perhaps the *only* interesting character in season one. This is season one's downfall. The characters are forgettable. There's little to no screen time dedicated to getting to know them. They're just faces and names (and often clichés) that forward the story.
Season one does not deserve the 8.1 IMDb rating.
A few episodes into season two, things start to change. The show takes on the advice of all the bad reviews and low critic scores. They start to flesh out the characters, to help you understand their motivations and relations. Cliche's fall away and characters become themselves, and - although many of them are cruel and vindictive - it's much easier to relate to and understand them, and even care about them.
As well as this, they also rely less on unnecessary harem scenes to fill out the episodes, and ditch some of the eyerolling racist stereotypes seen in season one. Marco himself becomes (a little) less distractedly boring, the pace of the show improves, and in general it becomes rawer, more dramatic, and much more 'show don't tell'.
There's still a weird mashup of Asian, Australian, American and European accents, but it's not too distracting.
In Marco Polo the good guys do bad things and the bad guys are often well intending. It's one of those shows that becomes compelling because of the realistic way the characters are (eventually) handled. And this is why season two is much better than season one.
Season three will be a huge turnaround for the popularity of Marco Polo. Marco Polo is brilliantly diverse, beautiful in setting and production, and tells a story that becomes increasingly more interesting. I believe season three will make this show great.
But right now, as it is, I can only recommend it as 'good'. But I do, absolutely, recommend it.
Despite the obvious lack of actual Mongolian actors, it's pretty well cast. Most of the actors are good - some very, very good - despite no one really getting a whole lot of development. Khan Kublai is by far the most interesting character - but is perhaps the *only* interesting character in season one. This is season one's downfall. The characters are forgettable. There's little to no screen time dedicated to getting to know them. They're just faces and names (and often clichés) that forward the story.
Season one does not deserve the 8.1 IMDb rating.
A few episodes into season two, things start to change. The show takes on the advice of all the bad reviews and low critic scores. They start to flesh out the characters, to help you understand their motivations and relations. Cliche's fall away and characters become themselves, and - although many of them are cruel and vindictive - it's much easier to relate to and understand them, and even care about them.
As well as this, they also rely less on unnecessary harem scenes to fill out the episodes, and ditch some of the eyerolling racist stereotypes seen in season one. Marco himself becomes (a little) less distractedly boring, the pace of the show improves, and in general it becomes rawer, more dramatic, and much more 'show don't tell'.
There's still a weird mashup of Asian, Australian, American and European accents, but it's not too distracting.
In Marco Polo the good guys do bad things and the bad guys are often well intending. It's one of those shows that becomes compelling because of the realistic way the characters are (eventually) handled. And this is why season two is much better than season one.
Season three will be a huge turnaround for the popularity of Marco Polo. Marco Polo is brilliantly diverse, beautiful in setting and production, and tells a story that becomes increasingly more interesting. I believe season three will make this show great.
But right now, as it is, I can only recommend it as 'good'. But I do, absolutely, recommend it.