Two days of "Marco Polo" have gone by and even though I'm not a big binge-watching fan (I normally try to prolong my favorites series) I've already watched four of the ten episodes (for many people not even this is binge-watching, but for my standards that's insane).
Despite the first two episodes only being "nice" and "solid", this series has made me addicted. It's just so different from the other stuff we normally see, as - let's be honest, here in the Western world (in my case Germany) most of us don't know a lot about Asia and its history. And from the four episodes I've seen and the things I've known before watching it, nothing is the same there as in Europe and North America.
In the meantime, the characters are slowly starting to evolve and develop, and I already like Marco Polo and the others very much. Kublai Khan is maybe my favorite character, he's the typical "Game of Thrones"-guy in my opinion, someone where you don't really know if he's good or evil. But the Song family and it's chancellor are very entertaining, too.
The best you'll get from this series obviously is the look of it - I mean it has to, as it cost 80 million dollars. The world looks so authentic, the cinematography is astonishing and man, just watching it blows you away.
Last but not least, I just want to mention the fighting and action scenes in this interim conclusion. There are not many if you ask me, I expected a lot more, but they are so, so good. I love the scenes with 100 Eyes, they use a lot of slow motion there and especially here the cinematography shines.
Altogether, as you may noted, I really like this show so far. Obviously it's not perfect, as I wrote in my pilot review, the first one or two episodes felt too rushed, and the main story is still a bit bog-standard. Otherwise though, this one is great and another hit from Netflix. This series will (hopefully) be awesome in the second half, when the Khan vs. Song clash will arrive.
GRADES: (Scores:) Episode 1: B+ (82/100), Episode 2: A- (89/100), Episode 3: A+ (95/100), Episode 4: A (91/100), OVERALL: A- (89/100)
