Tarantino

From Coming Soon:

Netflix is also working on adding still more new shows to its slate. One coming up is Marco Polo, created by John Fusco (Hidalgo) and produced by The Weinstein Company. Among the directors already signed on are Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg (Kon-Tiki) and Dan Minahan (Game of Thrones).

Described as “a kinetic tale of high politics, masterful manipulation and deadly warfare among clashing empires,” Marco Polo follows the legendary explorer as he gets swept up in a war in 13th century China. The show will feature a “global” cast although no specific stars have been announced at this point.

Netflix is not the only one who’s recently shown interest in the iconic adventurer. Both Tarsem Singh and Francis Lawrence were linked to Marco Polo movies at various points over the past few years, although both projects seem to have fizzled since then.

Shooting on Netflix’s Marco Polo is expected to begin shortly at Pinewood Studios in Malaysia. The nine-episode season will premiere in late 2014.

After Orange is the New Black & House of Cards, I'll see anything they do.

DVD Josh

Crap, I was hoping for a serious drama revolving around the legendary closed-eye pool game.

lacubs

was Marco Polo supposed to be on Starz? but was canceled before it ever air

RichC2

Their Martial Arts Chroeographer was on Malaysia Airline Flight 370:

http://www.deadline.com/2014/03/marc...es-flight-307/

Kmical

WANTED: Assistant Martial Arts Choreographer for upcoming historical drama series. For more details, please contact [email protected]

lewisb73

Reminds me of an incident this weekend, I was out shopping, and a guess it was a mother looking for her child, starts shouting out Marco... On instinct I blurt out "POLO"... lets just say the look of disgust I got from her made me want to leave the store immediately lol

Nausicaa

Sounds cool. This must require a substantially higher budget than their other original programming, so I'll be curious how this turns out and whether they can pull it off. Orange and House of Cards, along with their other original work, are still pretty small scale dramas. Will be interesting to see if they can really pull off a premium cable quality show with the grand set pieces and scope of shows like Rome, Deadwood, or GoT.

Navinabob

Martial art master on a hijacked plane... it's like a movie he woulda choreographed.

bluetoast

It is expertly portrayed in The Sopranos by Tony, Artie and Carmela.

superdeluxe

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...ts-cast-694375

Cast has been set, series supposedly will air late in 2014 and will have 10 episodes.

sven

Sounds cool. I'll definitely be checking it out when it drops.

Red Dog

Yeah. Sounds cool. A period of history not really done yet - at least on TV.

DJariya

Bump

Debuts today on Netflix. All 10 episodes have been posted. This is reportedly a $90M production from the Weinsteins. I don't expect many here to go crazy binging this show like OITNB or HOC. I don't foresee this being must see right now for most of you.

Here's the trailer:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hB-ltNasHVw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


I'm not sure I have time to tackle this right away. But, I am interested in it. I love period dramas and I'm fascinated with this period in history.

Nausicaa

Why's that? There is certainly nothing else on TV for the next few weeks. I'll probably start this tonight, thanks for the reminder.

Abob Teff

As of today, I'm supposed to be on vacation until the second week of January ... Won't binge it tonight, but I can guarantee I will binge soon!

Baron Of Hell

I watched the first episode which was interesting. I might have missed a scene that confused me a bit on present time and past time. So far it isn't what I thought it would be but that isn't a bad things. Lots of boobs, lots of sex. A blind man does some stuff. I'll keep watching

Baron Of Hell

Just watched episode 2
I was confused on which side some people were on but now it is clear. I thought the consort was with the Mongols which didn't make sense.

Anyway this was much better than the first episode. I'm hooked on it.

Baron Of Hell

Episode 4
Oh boy I think some viewers will run away.



Episode 5
The father and those guys

Defiant1

I saw the first episode today.

Pros:
- The filming locations are spectacular
- Production values in are top tier, befitting the second most expensive show currently airing on TV/Netflix
- Storyline seems promising. I expect lots of intrigue, plotting, scheming, and boobs.

Cons:
- The actor who plays Marco Polo is bland oatmeal porridge. Probably a language barrier issue as his English seems shaky. I can't believe they couldn't find a good Italian or Italian-looking actor who could speak fluent English.
- Many of the Asian actors' accents are a bit difficult to deciper. I've heard some of them in real life and their English is excellent but they speak with "Asian" accents here.


This is basically Asian Game of Thrones, but HBO has nothing to worry about.

Baron Of Hell

Finished the season.
Liked it a bunch. The main actor playing Marco is the weakest link in the show. I don't think he has much range as a actor. The good news is he doesn't dominate the show.

I think a few people will have a problem with the action scenes but I liked them. There is a little crouching tiger hidden dragon moves going on that might turn some people off.

I didn't like the very end. Two characters do something pretty dumb that could get them killed or the people they love killed.

Anyway I hope it gets another season. I don't think it will. The show looks like it cost a lot of money.

movieking

Had no idea about this, but saw it on the Netflix main page. It seemed to have a lot of reviews given the short amount of time that it's been out. I might check it out over Christmas, but I don't have a great desire to see it. The reviews had been lukewarm at best for the most part.

Nausicaa

I'm about halfway through. I'm enjoying it enough, but it's not a *great* show. The writing and acting are often kind of ham-handed and a lot of the story is pretty rote. I find most of the characters underdeveloped so far as well with very surface level motivations. The production design is good, but lacks the scope of something like GOT. Pretty much the entire show takes place in one city or a handful of palace chambers. I also find aspects of the show leaning a bit too far towards Orientalism, but I guess that is to be expected for a show of this subject matter targeted towards Western audiences. I also agree the actor who plays Marco is kind of insufferable.

So yeah, decent show, worth watching, but I guess I expected a story with a longer timespan and more scope.

B.A.

I fell asleep before the end of the first ep.

It's trying to be too many things.

And Marco is boring.

Nausicaa

I finished this last night. The show definitely improved about half way through the season, but I still stand by many of my initial criticisms. I enjoyed the show, but with some better writing and acting it could have been much better.

One thing that surprised me was Jia Sidao's character, who ended up being one of the better developed and more interesting people towards the end. He was ruthless and largely loathesome, but I admit being slightly touched by his reaction after being hugged by the child Emperor. Of course he murdered his mother and was exploiting him for Sidao's own ends, but still. Great three dimensional villain and among the best performances on the show. Especially interesting because I felt Kublai remained, mostly, an enigma throughout the season despite being the main protagonist. This was one of the problems with the show, in my view, as the intrigue surrounding Kublai was not as interesting or fun to watch as what was happening among the Song.

Some great fight scenes in the end as well. I really hate the "blind swordsman" trope though. Really strained believably and didn't add anything to the monk's character since his blindness didn't seem to impede him in any way.

It ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, so I'm curious if they will keep going with this. I think based on the second half of the season I would definitely be in for a second.

Solid Snake

started watching this yesterday.

i'm on E08 now.

Really glad with Benedict Wong in this. He gained some weight for sure. 35lbs. Some of the look is also make up. Damn good work on him.

Marco Polo is kind of a cipher to which we can connect to other characters. I find him to be the most boring of them all. The non white characters get my attention much more.

Good show. Starts off ok and keeps getting better.