Knightfall

In 1291 Acre, the Templar Knights lose their last foothold in the Holy Lands and the Holy Grail sinks to the bottom of the sea. Fifteen years later in Paris, Brother Landry is a close confident to King Philip and Queen Joan of France. Isabella is their desirable daughter and William De Nogaret is their villainous advisor. Landry argues for a retaking of the Holy Lands. Master Godfrey is killed leaving a clue to the Grail. Pope Boniface VIII makes Landry the new Temple Master as the quest for the Grail begins.

It's a clunky mix of history and melodrama. Tom Cullen has the beard and the quiet intensity. I'm not sold on his leading man credentials. The writing is too muddled. For much of the show, the hero is tilting at windmills. The opposition is so powerful that the premise seems hopeless. That's not a fun place to live and this is not actually a fun show. While it has its moments, this show is too uneven to maintain any momentum. Like everybody else, History Channel tried its hand at scripted drama. With all the other streaming services, I'm sure that this got lost in the shuffle.

It is However a very entertaining show loosely based on historical figures. Give it a whirl. I find it extremely entertaing and now that Mark Hamill has joined the cast I expect to be even more entertained.

At tones it can be monotonously slow but when it clicks into gear it can really work the best evidence of this was in the second half of season 2 and the season 1 finale. The rest of the time it varies between average and good but could work on it's overall pacing. There is a lot worse out there and I personally overall enjoyed it and hope to see a 3rd season as it appears to be improving and learning from past mistakes as the cast grow into their roles with experience.

The show begun very poorly. If I remember right the first 2-3 episodes were hard to watch. Poor performances by all the actors and it seemed as a very low budget production. But since that the show has made an huge leap forward and it is Safe to say that in second season now it is one of my favorite shows at the moment. Really give it a try up to second season.

I am mostly easy or forgiving when is comes to historic series, especially when they are done with care for scenery, dialogues and eye for detail of sets. The very first half hour of the pilot I got bored with religion, Christian or Jewish, and the simple mindedness about good and evil. throw in bad camera work and not very good (or bad) acting and what I was left with was disappointment. Not getting that feel of a good knight series which should be out there alongside the current viking and cowboy and other fantasy more-or-less-based-on-reality series.