War of Letters

For now watched half of Season 1, the story so far is with literally 3 hol'i'wood crap script decisions - one of them is too much 'almost hard love scenes'. Camera, scenes, scenery, clothes, atmosphere, rhythm - it is exceptional clutched as one movie. Usually there are 1-2 starting very good episodes, and then starts the 'filling', but here - every episode is ~55min (not just the first one!!) and every one of them have 0 wasted time in them. There is no even single waste scene! I definitely would change 2 more aspects - the dreams scenes and the overall 'causality'. By the time was is the mightiest court, and they present it too casual, too profanic, too much 'right now' which is impossible for tzar/emperor dynasty ... such people have always one eye in the future (in the classic books), but here they act more like midlevel managers. If you meet 'strange' moments - they are connected to something further in the series. No idea how is the book, I did read the interview with the authoress, and she said that the movie have the general direction by the book, but it is not 1:1. I sincerely believe the amount of NPCs is just right, as in this time the whole army was ~30k people, so for me it is normal the court to be about dozen people etc. They have horses, and the actors are riding them very calmly and naturally looking. When thew swing swords the movements are super OK, and not hol'i'wooded (or chinesed) at all. They don't use dumb special crap ... and yet there are special effects here and there. Some characters are unbalanced, purely scripter decision, but also they are consistent, so ok.

Every now and again, a certain show or film emerges and captures the interest of the general public. One of those shows - if not the show is War of Letters

After binge watching the series twice I truly learned to appreciate the subtle details inexplicably place throughout the series. It 100% provided a medium that could defy viewers' expectations due to the phenomenal acting, cinematic sequences and stellar soundtrack.

War of Letters combines traditional aspect of storytelling while staying true to the original source material. Something often challenging to achieve at such scale.

It leaves ample space to the imagination allowing viewers to take time to fully absorb the content while simultaneously forcing viewers to ask for more.

The direction offers an intriguing and captivating plot which is enhanced by the engaging performance of the lead characters especially Varbanov's performance as Bayan. The raw emotional and psychological portrayal is thrillingly felt as the story and characters develop each episode.

The conceptual depth of the story leaves room for future development and viewers are ultimately left wanting more.

I would recommend as 100% binge worthy.

I don't know the novel, but the first episode of the series captured my attention from the very first scenes. Outstanding scenography, brilliant cast, very good music and a fascinating story. I like the idea that the historical events are just a backdrop to the story and the team's goal is to recreate universal human relationships. The production is certainly large-scale and promising, I will follow the rest of the episodes with interest.

The storylines that were set in the first episode are a request for an interesting development, and the escape from the typical clichés in historical dramas gives a modern reading to both the drama and historical figures, which until now we know extremely one-sided.

It's worth seeing the action scenes and get in the mood. Perfect screenplay that aims to pay homage to old-fashioned craftsmanship and skill. The interest in the story is entirely the work of the stars. Demonstrating once again that there are few limits to the talent of an actor or actress. Who inhabits the fragile, spiteful contradiction of the story with such fierce dedication that it brings out the best in the actors around him..!? Although there are scenes of harrowing emotional openness and spontaneous charm, largely due to the degree of calculation evident in the plot and imagery, it undermines efforts to move and seduce..!?

This is a very fine series. We are still getting to know the characters after episode 1, and they are all interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens to each character and when and how the future episodes show us more of them. The cast is pretty amazing and all do a fantastic job. The story does grab you and has the potential to be very compelling as they are setting up interesting twists and mysteries.

This is all fiction, not a historically accurate portrait, and it's a really good piece of entertainment. I'm not a history buff but it would be interesting to follow which events depicted are actual historical fact and which are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. Waiting for more episodes!