Kralj

Very boring, feels unreal.

After watching 2 episodes, I can't find many redeeming points. There is no interaction between the characters, every dialogue comes across as a staged monologues by different historical figures. There is no action, there is hardly any movement at all, as most of the time characters are sitting down deep into monologues.

Rather than throwing every historical information into it, director should have used a bit of artistic freedom and make it interesting.

Shame Who has a patients to sit through, can learn a lot about that period.

I came across the movie at first while zapping through some Serbian TV-channels. I didn't know much about the movie or the book, but since I left Yugoslavia as child in the 90s, I felt really intrigued by the plot. Went online and did a bit of research and found out about the series instead.

I watched the whole thing and really enjoyed it. I was actually sad when it ended, as I wanted to know more. :)

Yes, the production and acting aren't Netflix level, but very much watchable. I came for the history, I wanted to know, to learn a bit more of how my former state was founded. There were plenty of interesting facts and moments that I never knew about.

I believe this series is more for someone who has ties to the region or is just generally very interested in Yugoslav-history. There are no epic battles or fight scenes if that's what you are looking for.

What I didn't like is that they used actors as narrators, like the reporters (Mesecina). I really wish they used a proper narrator to fill in the gaps of the story as it unfolded, that would have been more original. Felt a bit weird to listen to the by-standing reporters explain to the viewer what the King felt in a certain situation. And perhaps adding a bit graphics to the mix, to show how the borders moved through the years for example, would have been a plus.

But all in all I liked it, and it left me wishing for more. I really wanted to see what happens until the start of WW2. How Paul led the country and what happened to Peter II.

I don't know how this series will go on, but the first episode doesn't promise very much. Everything is slowed down, the dialogues are unconvincing, the actors are both good and not so good, but the scenography bothers me the most because everything seems like a play in theatrical setting. In any case, one should wait to see more episodes before passing judgements, right?

29.03.2021 Unfortunately, everything seems to be moving towards a bad result. Each new episode seems even less interesting, the acting is artificial, the dialogues are like a recital performance, the scenography is strikingly bad (especially scenes 'in the snow' in the third episode, as if they were filmed for a children's show!). I'm so disappointed!

After more than a year of work on this series, the final outcome appears to be a history lesson with drawn out dialogues. Most actors appear to be unconvincing in their roles so far, and do not help out in making the series interesting. I doubt the other episodes will be any better.

Sotra is an expert to take a theme that could be filmed as an epic block buster and make a school recital out of it. Some very important parts of Serbian (and Balkan) history are waiting for a more capable film maker.