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This series is actually very enjoyable if you can get over one glaring problem. Every 10 min the writers felt they needed to make a social justice comment. The characters constantly spew out irrelevant and non-sensical statements about racism, poverty, indigenous issues, LGTBQ issues, feminist, etc, etc, etc. That's all and fine but they make no sense to the story or the series. They are just there hanging out like a big zit on their nose. Could they not just make a National Treasure story? It was compelling and exciting. The characters were well developed. But I suspect that one of the new "diversity" producers or writers got to the script and simply added all this nonsense. It really does take away from the series and is a major reason it was not renewed.

This definitely feels like a CW show, but not necessarily in a bad way. It still has a lot of the charm of the original, albeit without Nic Cage, Sean Bean, or Diane Kruger lending their charisma. Some of the clues and character decisions are cheesey, but so were the ones in the original movies. The historical references are...dubious, but again so were the ones in the original movies. Some of the dialogue is over the top, but not irredeemably so. They also got several actors from the movies to lend their talents, which is nice.

Overall despite a few drawbacks it's a fun romp, and definitely more enjoyable than Peacock's "The Lost Symbol," which I felt kind of lost the charm of the movies it was based on.

If any of you remember the 90's, Disney was great at taking established successful stories and turning their sequels into junk. Lately all this Disney plus stuff has felt like that. Other than Star Wars, most of the marvel stuff, willow, and now this. I will still watch them but very disappointed. Mandalorian bad batch, and Andor have all been relatively huge successes compared to anything else original that Disney plus is putting out. National treasure started from cheesy but entertaining films. Nicholas cage made those movies fun. How can disney think they can do this without him? He is an icon!

If this is to engage younger audiences, then understandable. However don't write down and simplify narrative and story .... To broaden your audience because you get this drivel... I love Catherine Zeta Jones and Harvey Keitel. They were the only characters keeping me in. The lead young woman Lisette Olivers is also great... it's the supporting cast and the sloppy writing that makes me wish they all would fall into a well, never to be found. If Zuri Reed shouts "patriarchy" one more time I'm gonna throw my shoe at my tv. I get it, the original cast is too expensive en masse (I guess) but then spend on writers. This seems sooooooo boring but there's a great story tucked away. I cannot relate to any characters because they're just so naive, dumb and trivial... I don't care about any of them. Except for Catherine Zeta & Lisette.

ALSO! Disney! Stop being so lazy!!!! The last two relatively Hispanic characters have been named "Jess Valenzuela" and "America Chavez". Why not add a Lisa Porto Rico, James Brazilo and Gloria Chilis. It's juror terrible and lazy. I get it... "America Chavez" is a Marvel creation BUT she's a marvel creation from 2021..... so DO BETTER. Some of us brown people have names like, George, Abby, Peter with last names like Richards, Moro, and Jones.

The two takeaways from this rant... is your writing is poor and honestly superficial. I, and maybe more of us with a 4-5 star review do not care about these characters. Nor if they take on this adventure. Try harder with character development and names.

Also I love that Charley Koontz (Fat Neil) was in this!

I've got through the first two episodes, find it interesting enough. Realize this IS NOT going to be extravagant like the movies, and slower burn as it's a series. It has no more plot devices than the movies either, so don't hang on that withering piece of fruit from other reviewers...

On to the review.

First episode is getting to know Jess and her friend Tess. Setup is on par with Laura Croft IMO, makes sense for this type of character. I think she's a little too curious, too quickly but they have to start somewhere. Love that, just like in the movies, she's taking in info, looking for clues, acting on them, stuff happens. A pleasant cameo by a certain master mason from movies is a great touch. I'm looking forward to seeing how the world building progresses, story unfolds, and treasures to be found.