Gli ultimi zar

I admit, after its end, many frustrations are too fresh in my case. It can be defined as average serie. But the Romanovs deserves more than a too subjective history lesson, putting at the wall people out of their historical context. It is a sketch, not an inspired one. And this represents the basic error. The second big mistakes - the actors. Few are good and their acting represents what you expect. The majority... . Maybe, not their fault but the desire to give a panorama and to explain to much, from high subjectivity level. Short, maybe, an average serie. In my case,

This historical docuseries swings away at the story of Nicholas and Alexandra, their children, and the mad monk Rasputin (played with gusto and some sort of wild Cockney accent by British actor Ben Cartwright). It has tons and tons of sparkle and glitz, but it's missing heart. You are not going to become terribly involved with Czar Nicholas or the family's tragic story. There are some great photos taken during the time period, and even some film clips. This adds interest. However, that and the glamorous costumes are not enough to save this series. I suggest watching the film "Nicholas and Alexandra" instead, or perhaps reading Robert Massie's book about the fall of the Romanovs, "Nicholas and Alexandra". Grade: C

The problem with "The Last Czars" is that the creators couldn't decide on what they wanted this series to be. So instead of making a decision, they tried everything, and by doing this, they only succeeded in achieving mediocrity. The whole thing just missed some heart.

What they did wrong: * You make it into a drama-historical serie or into a docu-serie. Both together work against each other. You lose all the momentum when you cut to historical narrators who give context to the story.

* English accents in a very Russian enviroment doesn't work for me.

* Dialogue missed depth. Had the hardest time getting invested in the Romanov's.

*Visual effects were very poor (few shots of explosions, ships or train were not up to standards)

The good: * Historical correct! Costumes, sets were absolutely on point.

* A great story that needed to be told, but deserved a better translation.

In the end, if production would have been comparable to "The Crown", this would have been a great succes. Missed opportunity, what a shame! Nevertheless I watched the whole serie in two days. If you are interested in this kind of historical facts, this serie really deliver on historical facts. So I would still recommend watching it.

Whilst a lot of documentary series include dramatised segments, this very much feels like a drama series that intermittently gets interrupted by documentary moments. It's an unusual format, but I got used to it very quickly. It knits together well and I didn't feel that one style of presenting the narrative was encroaching upon the other. They complement each other effectively to give insight into a period of history that, I have realised, I didn't know as much about as I first imagined. Minor point. Other reviewers have questioned Nicholas having a dragon tattoo. It's actually historically accurate. He got it on a trip to Japan before he became Czar.

I'm surprised a lot of reviewers are not a fan of the commentary in between scenes. I however, loved this combination. I am a fan of history and when watching historical series or films I tend to google while watching because a lot of questions pop up in my head. This time I didn't need to do that, because all I ever wanted to know was told and explained in the series.

I think they created the right atmosphere and the music at the beginning is perfect to set the tone.

I watched all episodes in one go and was sad when I had finished them. Great acting as well. The historians in the series were perfectly cast by the way, they were really telling the story with emotion. This was a history class on steroids. Well done!