Marco Polo

Marco Polo not only met my expectations but exceeded them in every way. It was only on for two seasons but they were a great two seasons. This has to be one of Netflix's most underrated shows ever. I don't know anyone who's seen it that didn't like it. Lorenzo Richelmy is absolutely perfect for this role and does such a terrific job as the lead and Benedict Wong leads a fantastic supporting cast. I'm actually mad at myself for putting it off for as long as I did. If you're a fan of historical action adventure thrillers like myself and you haven't watched this yet then do yourself a favor and go watch it as soon as possible. You won't be disappointed. Just make sure you leave yourself enough time because you're going to want to binge it as fast as you can.

Marco Polo is such an entertaining and underrated show, the only thing I'm mad at is it took as long as it did for me to watch it. You can tell they put a lot of money into this show by the sheer scale of it. Although Season one was really good it really takes off on season two. It almost feels like a different show in season two. This was one of Netflix's first big shows when Netflix was first taking off. Is it historically accurate? No...but who cares? It doesn't claim to be. It's just an entertaining show that's very well done! They canceled it too early but I read that it was so ridiculously expensive to make that they didn't have a choice. Still, glad we got two amazing seasons out of it.

Although littered with historical and biographical inaccuracies and exaggerations, Marco Polo has a good quality production and creates an escapist atmosphere of a mythologized past. The acting is average, and the story lines and characters are intriguing. The settings and camera work are great, and rather than solely focusing on Marco Polo the show has many other characters' roles and perspectives. The sense of power struggles is well laid out, although not even close to Game of Thrones level in scope (obviously).

In terms of any comparisons and/ or contrasts of other historical-epic type t.v. shows, I would say those that enjoyed the shows Rome, Spartacus, Vikings, and Shogun would enjoy this show. This show isn't quite as good as those particular shows, but is better than shows like Black Sails, Davinci's Demons, and The Tudors.

Considering it's Netflix first venture into historical-epic/ fantasy type genre, it's really good quality and more signs of great original content on the Netflix horizon.

All in all, I give it an 8.

I am appalled at the ignorance of some of the things posted in the boards of this show. I think it's pretty outstanding! The casting is excellent, the attention to history in detail of costumes and culture is awesome and I rather like the fact that Marco Polo himself is more of an observer than a main character...the Mongols, especially Kublai Khan, stealing every single scene! People have bemoaned the "stiffness" of the actors; I can only chalk that up to very little exposure to Asian culture, film or acting! Watch some classic Asian made films and you'll see the acting in this offering is very true to form. As for casting of Chinese as Mongols when they are two very distinctly different ethnic groups,the make-up did a very credible job transforming them into believable Mongols...who are much darker in skin than Chinese, have higher cheekbones, broader faces and a more pronounced slant to the eyes than Chinese as well. The choice to have each group speak in English was a wise business decision. The biggest audience for this is Americans who don't exactly have much patience with subtitles. There was a nice combination of native languages spoken either in the background or as asides that gave one a good flavor of the languages. The attention to detail in costuming was really, really good. And for those worried about historical accuracy...there are almost 150 different editions or versions of The Travels of Marco Polo which is the travelogue "written" (actually spoken to a scribe) by Polo himself. They all have great flights of fantasy and magic and extremely improbable events in them so much so that some scholars have wondered if Polo had ever really been to all the places he claimed to visit, so a few inaccuracies ( like everyone speaking in English) is actually right in line with Polo's original work and actually might have been something the author himself might have appreciated. In short, stop looking for production and script flaws, stop displaying such ignorance about Asian cultures and just sit back and enjoy a darn good-adventure film!

Marco Polo has most of the components of a great show: An intriguing plot, great cinematography combined with astounding and exotic settings, and complemented by above average choreography and costumes.

I say most, only because of a few bland acting performances scattered scarcely across the show, mostly by the main actor playing Marco Polo. This however, did not affect my enjoyment of the show, since it excels in so many other respects. The show does a good job of not focusing solely on Marco Polo, but also on Kublai Khan, his empire, as well as a very strong antagonist.

Marco Polo is being unjustly panned by critics. It is being unfairly compared to Game of Thrones, which has very little in common with it, which leads me to suspect that these critics haven't watched anything past the trailer. Even if it is not on the same level of Game of Thrones, it should not be completely dismissed, as is being done by critics.

I say give Marco Polo a chance, regardless of what the critics say. Completely dismissing a show because it is not on par with one one of the greatest shows on TV, especially one that demonstrates this high level of film-making, is really unfair.

Marco Polo: 9/10.