Review : Marco Polo

No spoilers.

Just finished watching season 2 of Netflix's lavish Marco Polo. I hope the rumours of season 3's demise aren't true, this is a superb show. Granted, if you're a stickler for historical accuracy this wouldn't be for you. Some of the fight scenes have exaggerated feats of martial prowess, though it could be a lot worse. Scraping the barrel for the negatives, the characters have an odd mix of Chinese / Mongolian / American accents.

But who cares about that stuff ? What it's got going for it is a strong cast, a story that if not historical certainly feels historical, an extremely high production value, complex, multi-faceted characters, and beautiful cinematography.

Marco Polo isn't about Marco Polo at all. Like Mad Max, he's a sidekick in his own show, especially in season 2. I would guestimate he's on screen not more than 25% of the time, probably closer to 15%. OK, yes, on occasion he does intervene in some pretty major events, which certainly never took place in reality, but the alterations to Polo's story certainly aren't any greater than for any other character. Overall, he plays a relatively minor role. Even the journey from Venice to Mongolia is quickly glossed over. This show is far more about a much more important historical figure : Kublai Khan.

The show begins with Marco arriving at the court of the Great Khan. It's immediately clear that whatever Marco achieves, he's not remotely comparable to Kublai. Eventually, through long struggle, he wins influence with the Khan but little more than that. They could cut Marco completely and not have too much editing to do. Which is a little strange because Marco's European perspective on China would be an interesting one to examine, but you don't notice that because Benedict Wong's Kublai is damn magnificent.

It's tough to imagine anyone ever playing Kublai better than Wong. He's intelligent, dangerous, ruthless, threatening, compassionate, merciful, tolerant, bigoted, a visionary, confident, insecure, arrogant, inspiring, capricious. In short, he's utterly, genuinely unpredictable, yet Wong makes his every action seem entirely consistent with his character. He deserves gushing praise and lots of awards.

As for the rest, there's not much to dislike about them... but they're all very much playing second fiddle to one of the most powerful men who ever lived. Only his wife Chabi comes close to equalling him. The rest are interesting enough, it's just that they're not Kublai. Still, they work well as an ensemble cast. They all have their moments.

If the rumours are true and season 3 would concentrate on the mythical Prester John and bring Kublai to an early death, it's hard to see this as anything other than a foolish mistake. Thus far the story follows the very broad sweep of Kubali's life, inventing a lot of details and just plain making stuff up quite a lot, but doing it well and consistently. Kublai is firmly established as the character. I want to know what he's going to do next. I want to see him invade Japan...
http://www.movienewsguide.com/marco-polo-season-3-release-date-netflix-unlikely-renew-series-low-ratings/258040