Marco Polo: Kung Fu, Mongols, Bad Acting, and Boobs

Essentially, the problems with Marco Polo all stem from pure laziness. The first episode starts us off with a beautiful set, showing the rolling hills of China, the imperial city of Kublai Khan, and a relatively authentic view of what Mongol soldiers were said to look like. Before the dialogue started, I was totally hooked. However, once Polo, his father, and his gang of priests were thrust before the Khan himself, problems started to arise. According to the historical accounts of Marco Polo, the reason that Khan took a liking to him was because of his speaking skills. Apparently, he was so well-spoken and funny that they called him the "Eloquent Orater." If Polo was this great talker, why the fuck did Netflix cast Lorenzo Richelmy? Yeah, he's a good looking authentic Italian, but holy shit can this guy not act. It certainly doesn't help that the show gives him very few lines but a lot of it is on Richelmy! He is ridiculously unconvincing as Polo, preferring to stand blank-faced than to express real emotion. It probably doesn't help that this is his first real American production and that he didn't start learning proper English till he got the gig as Polo. Without a decent main character, the show already took a hit.

Moving right along, we have the other characters. Benedict Wong portrays Kublai Khan, the man with the largest Empire in the world. The sloppily written script makes sure to mention about 10,000 times that Kublai is the grandson of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan. Otherwise, it shows Khan to be vicious and power-hungry, but also reasonable and learned. While he is brutal on the battlefield and in diplomatic circumstances, he values teachings of all religions, allowing complete tolerance across his kingdom. Wong does a pretty good job of portraying the Mongol Emperor but without a solid script to transform him into a layered character or a glaring villain, it seems to be to no avail. That being said, I loved when Khan shouts, "Emperor of China, Emperor of Mongolia, I will be Emperor of the WORLD!"
The supporting cast is made up of other muddled characters. There is Kublai's wife portrayed by Twin Peak's Joan Chen, the Chancellor of the Song dynasty (a scheming bastard), his sister (a concubine and kung fu master), and a plethora of random hot women and badass men. The evil chancellor, probably the villain of the first season, is pretty entertaining as an antagonist, but isn't anything new to TV. His sister is wacky as hell. In the second episode, three soldiers come to have sex with her but not wanting to be taken advantage of, she slow-motion kills them all while being naked. While I have no problem with nudity of violence (I watch HBO, don't I?), when it's used so poorly, it takes away from any relevance it had. Having slow motion shots of naked women beheading people doesn't really make for compelling story. Continuing in that vein, there's just too much pointlessness in Polo. 100 eyes, a blind Kung-Fu trainer of Polo is essentially just a walking stereotype. While he's a cool badass, it feels too much like watching some Jackie Chan movies.

This brings me to my final thoughts on the series. While enjoyable to watch, blowing 90 million dollars on a show that barely competes with Legend of the Drunken Master just seems like an inbuilt mistake. Yeah, the show is ridiculously cool to watch but without any substance it's hard to get too into the show. Since it's December and other than American Horror Story, Survivor, and Family Guy all of my shows are off TV till January I'll probably end up watching a bit more of Polo. However, if it fails to ever redeem itself or be anything more than a conveniently timed release, it seems that the show is just not worth watching.