Beowulf

O.M.G. To say that this show was terrible would be an UNDERSTATEMENT. It was basically just Game of Thrones only they scrimped on the special effects and aired it before the watershed.

This idea sounded WONDERFUL but the end product was as best campy and at worst like a budget Game of Thrones. Even the THEME MUSIC is reminiscent of the Thrones theme. Whoever conceived this should be fired!

I could go on for hours about the faults of this show but, I'll end on this: Beowulf is a story that has been around for over a thousand years and is ripe for adaptation, but the next time you want to adapt it for TV, stay close to the source material. In short, GET. IT. RIGHT!

As a complete fantasy addict who is normally very forgiving, and a lover of early history, I personally had high hopes, but this show is a huge disappointment. It is far inferior to modern series like the Vikings, Last Kingdom and Game of Thrones.

There is nothing wrong with a modern telling of an ancient story for a young audience today. To fill out and even creatively adapt the epic for a 21st century audience would be good if it was done well. This wretched mixed up travesty abuses and soils the name of one of the the original and greatest works in the English literature. It has very little to do with the original Anglo-Saxon epic of Beowulf, rather it is a badly written 21st century quasi-medieval fantasy that steals a few names from the original and begins to tell the audience a utterly different inferior story.

Good grief the whole program is a bad with below average direction, production and acting. The whole cast where wholly unconvincing and Beowulf himself was a very poor version of the super top notch warrior of English literature. And what the hell have they done with Heriot, the great hall was some weird Mayan, tolkienesque, 21st century fantasy temple hybrid, were warriors did not have banquets but mingled at cocktail parties. So many of the costumes and sets appeared to be either bad or borrowed from other fantasy productions.

This series isn't great. This series is very entertaining. I wish the series creators hadn't gone for the easy option of calling it Beowulf because that's what niggles people like me. For heavens sake think up a new norse name to call your hero and eliminate all the pedant complaints, this is just asking for bad reviews. My son, who has actually been made to read the saga of Beowulf at school tells me that Beowulf died. I don't know if that's actually true but if he believes it then many others of his age will also. My son is extremely scornful of the series without even bothering to watch any of it.My son is probably the target audience of this series. Nuff said.

Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands is one of those series that would have been better off re scripted as a comedy. Regrettably, the writers decided to play this series as a serious fantasy drama. What a mistake.

Almost everything about Beowulf screams comedy. From what appears to be an old mine site, which has been rehashed as an early medieval village, of sorts, through to the costumes, that look like they were recycled from a heavy metal concert.

The storyline is chuckle worthy too. The main character Beowulf is on a testosterone overdose. He's incessantly simmering with cheesy, macho rage, wanting to fight everyone and everything in sight. The rest of the cast are shoe horned into equally awful, clinched, characterizations. Imagine, if Game of Thrones had been scripted by Monty Python and you are there.

All this silliness is inexplicable given this series has an excellent cast of actors, including a cameo or two by William Hurt! If money could be spent on a cast of this caliber, why not a story fitting their talents?

If you can adjust your sights and view Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands as a comedy of errors its actually not too dreadful. Try to take it seriously, however, and you may do yourself a mental mischief. Four out of ten from me.

I first turned Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands on by mistake and quickly realized that this show could be an interesting watch. I have been pleasantly surprised and at times, I have only been mildly disappointed.

If you enjoy fantasy story telling, decent sword fight choreography, and minor attempts at comedy then give it a try. I don't think you will be too disappointed.

BUT...For the people who are easily dissuaded by mid talent acting and a bit of copy cat antics then I feel you will not enjoy watching it.

A lot of people are bashing it because it is trying too hard to be Game of Thrones. The title sequence is a direct copycat and really takes away from the show. Once people see and hear it they immediately get turned off and want nothing to do with it. There are small inadequacies that push the viewer to eye rolling but most of them can be overlooked. The story isn't the strongest but you can't compare it to GoT, that is unfair. If you compare ANYTHING to GoT it would be unfair.

If I was allowed to change ONE thing only...I would take away the title sequence and replace it with something individual. I believe wholeheartedly that it's a huge issue for people and will cause the show to lose some major viewers.

Don't give up on it after the first episode. It takes a little time to get rolling. It's really not a bad watch at all. Give it a try.