User Reviews

I loved season 1. I watched season 2 straight after it but I was disappointed by quite a lot of things.

Let me start with the positives. Benedict Wong is an incredible actor. He displays so many emotions at once and the unpredictability of him is striking. Most people's acting is good but Benedict Wong stands out. The scene with Kublai and Xiao Zian (the boy) was one of the most touching scenes on TV, if not the most for me and is actually the only fictional death I'm saddened by and I've watched a lot of TV shows and films so well performed. I'm also pleased that the show is different to the history because it's unpredictable but it's more predictable because it's obvious you'll just keep doing series after series after series so you can make as much money as you can.

Now the negatives. It seems that the writers write a story and all logic is just thrown out, no matter how it's executed, you want the final results of your heroes winning, with one or two casualties. Predictable like every bad TV shows which wants to milk out as many series as possible. You put the odds heavily against the main characters favor because you 'think' it makes us tense and you'll get them out of that situation every time and think we'll be shocked,

So season 1 episode 10. Mei tries to escape her captivity. She kills the man serving her food, already a death sentence for her daughter, and then stumbles upon a locked door and the painting. Now if I was Mei, would I not kill Ahmed or seriously injure him and take the keys to leave, or the man I killed before and escape? Ahmed would be the only main character to know (if he was alive). And if he was, why would he give chase? If he caught Mei, she would uncover his plan.

The fight scene between the incredible fighter who was defending the boy( sorry don't know her name) and Mei and Marco was stupid. We see Hundred eyes easily defeat over 10 men and the incredible fighter is as good as him or better as we saw in their sword fight. So what happens? A terrible fight scene. If you need to keep the main characters alive, and we know you need to keep them alive, don't put the odds heavily against them. Mei was obviously not as good as her and Marco even less so, then she for some reason runs away when she is trying to defend the boy and only appears much later to be in full view to allow everyone to happily get away.

The end was even more so stupid. Everyone who is not a main character is treated like they're not people, like they don't have brain cells and can't fight or think. Why on earth are they taking orders from a foreigner who is sitting on the throne and disrespecting the Khan and trying to kill the prince. The Khan's son. Yes your excuse would be, 'they think they're taking orders from the Khan', which brings me back to my point, they have brain cells and only the new main character, the general is shown to have any.

The fights in the wars are more stupid, the not main characters apparently need to attack one by one, have no fighting skill at all, every time so the main characters can easily kill them off. And then a main character finally gets into trouble, and no, he will die, oh look another main character came just at the right moment. Wow I was so tensed up, I thought he was going to die! And oh wait doing it once wasn't enough, let's do it every episode throughout the series.

The main characters appearing at the exact right time to save the day needs to stop. It's not bringing me to the edge of my seat or whatever you think. It's so boringly obvious.

Another things is how Ahmed knew the perfect time to take off the painting so that when Mei brings in Marco, the painting isn't there and for some reason it's too hard for her to say. Ahmed's holding Kublai's head instead of showing the picture so she just says you need to go away which will obviously work.. So we now think that the Mongolian empire is doomed! Oh, come on, I know some bullshit will happen and Ahmed will die. Then somehow nobody else who walked into Ahmed's room saw the striking paintings including Kublai and his wife because that's possible and neither did the brain dead Mongolia soldiers or the person bringing Mei food.

I loved season 1, I didn't like season 2 but I won't mind if season 3 is like this because this has my favorite genres. Medieval and wars. But please, for the love of God do not milk out series. I know every series who will survive, all the main characters apart from 1 or 2 will survive the next season and you'll bring in 2 or 3 more to replace them. You'll being in a new 'villain' halfway through in the next series and I bet you it's the old man. Please change away from what you're planning to do.