Netflix’s ‘TROY: Fall of a City’ is worth the bloodshed — Spoiler-free Review
Beautiful things seem to happen when the British and Netflix join hands. After broadcasting the much sought after ‘End of the F***ing World’ with Channel 4, the streaming giant is back with yet another wondrous spectacle — this time with the BBC. Right out of Homer’s book, Netflix constructs Troy in an equally realistic and mythically pleasing manner.
‘Troy: Fall of a City’ is a carefully structured miniseries. While the Hollywood version — albeit held up by its stellar cast — never did justice to the story, the Netflix one delivers, and how!
Beyond the punch and binge-watching element in the series is the inclusion — with ample distribution of races, ethnic groups, sexual orientation — which is much needed in the new world we live in today. What’s even more masterful is how all these elements add to the story, rather than take away from it — if someone has an issue with “historic accuracy” in a myth, that is.
The miniseries starts with Paris, played by Louis Hunter of The Secret Circle fame, being forced to pick one among the goddess-trio of Hera, Athena and Aphrodite to settle a dispute. When the Judgement of Paris is delivered, Aphrodite — played by British-South African actress Lex King — prevails. What follows is a rollercoaster ride that almost anyone familiar with Greek mythology can foresee. What, however, was not expected is how the little things, the smaller details in the series adds up to the overall quality of the story.
In a world were heroes of many epics are usually painted in black-and-white, Netflix brings out the grey-spectrum. The flaws of Paris, the failings of Priam and his sons, the brutality of King Agamemnon and the Greeks he rules, the selfishness of Helen, the fickleness of fabled heroes such as Odysseus, the inferiority of Menelaus and finally, the ego of Achilles — are some of these. All the major characters are dissected in depth as the episodes go by, and it is indeed quite a delight to watch.
Of course, there are slips. A few logical missteps here and there, and the technical inferiority of the series does get to you at times, but the stellar cast — with Tom Weston-Jones as Hector, David Gyasi as Achilles and Game-of-Thrones veteran Joseph Mawle as Odysseus — more than make up for it.
The eight-episode binge could be that something the inner mythos-lover in you is craving for this weekend. So do give it a watch.