Barbarians is an ambitious attempt to tell stories from the most fascinating time of European history. That are never told.
Technically it is one of the best historical dramas out there. Dress, houses, weapons, armor, hairstyles and so on, this show made the best effort ever made to get it right or to make a good interpetation of what little data exist.
Doubleplussuperextra good for the language. The Germans speak German, the Romans speak Latin. Fantastic! Very immersive and very interesting.
What the show fails with is to recreate German society and value systems of the day. Something that would have been extremely difficult and risky to do, it could have turned into a grisly flop insulting everyone. Instead the show makes a compromise between contemporary sensibilities and some guesswork of past societies. I think this is acceptable. And sure, the girl power aspect of the show is a nod to woke culture. However, the Germans of old did tell stories of heroic ladies. And at least we are spared the shieldmaiden platoons of the tv show Vikings. Here we just have the playing up of one extraordinary woman that is mentioned in history.
Casting is also very good. Nothing ruins a show more than bad casting and here they got it right. Tushnelda is especially well casted.
One thing that was a bit disturbing to me is the ages of people in the show, too many old people, too few young people too few children. A tip to any future show is to be inspired by a harsh war torn place in the third world rather than contemporary European or American society whith this aspect. The Germans of 0 AD was a people teeming with youth and life. Not an old dying one.
Overall, very good effort, very enjoyable result. Hoping for more!
