I generally love FX and period programming so this should have been a match made in heaven but what in the world were they thinking with "The Bastard Executioner"?
I understand they cannot please all of the people all of the time but an attempt should have been made. If the goal is to try to capitalize on the fame of historic shows currently produced like Vikings or Game of Thrones FX really should have done something to stand apart. The premise is shaky, the writing is awful and I have to assume fact checking wasn't even attempted.
What's so wrong... Here we go **SPOILERS**
1) Whomever they used as a historic consultant, fire them! Or listen to them. They tried to set up the concept of being in 14th century wales by beating us to death with the horrible prologue at the beginning of the pilot. History is amazingly vast and full of wonderful stories, why did you not use anything relating to the time period? This would have actually stood a chance in a fantasy world IF not for the following...
2) The writing was awful, I mean seriously awful, the dialogue was trite and the story itself was predictable, I knew most of how the 2 hour pilot was going to go in the first 10 minutes. I stayed tuned in the attempt to give it a chance. The shepherd was gonna blow it, Wilkin Brattle was going to lose the wife and baby, this is all driven by prophecy and therefore the witch and her plagued (leprosy-ridden?)companion had to make it so. Characters are much better if they have choices rather than being forced into prophecy. Its LAZY writing.
3) The armor and weapons Oh. My. God. The only explanation for this is everyone wielding magical vorpal weaponry. Either their chainmail is made of tin foil or all blades are magic. There is no reason for armor to rend like it did, there is no reason for sleeves to split and for one hack of a sword to cut through it. I don't care how strong you are, you cannot put a knife through someone's head that easily not once but twice (the moor woman and Baron Ventris)- truly these must be magical weapons.
4) A bunch of rebel fighters who suddenly get their hands on castle forged steel are not going to become good fighters- swordsmanship was a skill that time of the nobility, it took more training than just a few months smacking at each other in a field. Better writing with realistic weapons would have fixed this AND made Wilkin stand out more as a man who can actually use a sword correctly.
5) There was a huge battle between the English soldiers and the Scots in which Wilkin Brattle participated at the beginning. All units of that time had camp followers and corpse pickers. Yet they had an amazingly bare battlefield- this would have taken a few extras to correct, almost no money Lazy again.
6) The original executioner was laughable- they had a man being skinned and torn apart to introduce their "punisher". He was still and silent until he manages to spit out a gag then gives us a little scream. Clearly FX is trying for the shocking violence and gore but frankly it was laughable.
7) What is with all the branding and burning? - yes it was common in the time period but it didn't work like they portray. Burning is awfully hard on the body- the original executioner would be dead from infection or from renal failure with his penance after beating his wife and son. When flesh is burned the kidneys have to work extra hard to clean up the dead cells in the blood stream, "burning yourself to renew your faith is bullshit". If Wilkin is trying to cover for that then he needed a better line. Yes flagellists did this sometimes, look up how long they lasted. (Hint: The goal wasn't lasting, it was to get God's attention and earn forgiveness- the goal was to meet him soon and look good doing it!)
8) In 14th century Wales you expect us to believe there is a Moor couple, but only one, in ultra-Christian lands extremely far from the middle-east and not in a time period for slaves to be brought back to Wales? And the woman is clearly praying in a format that is extremely Islamic in Christian Wales? I know you have to have token ethnicity but seriously, that is just insulting to people of color to make a throw away character black for the sake of ethnicity.
9) Why do your men folk show so little emotion at losing their homes, not just fire and death but to outright slaughter? Why was the stupid shepherd left to give away their position? I smell a bad plot device If they were serious about not getting caught they would have done things so much differently; clearly they all wanted to be single men on a vengeance quest. Again Lazy writing and really a lack of creativity too.
This is seriously the worst thing on television and I do not see hope of it getting better. I didn't think there was a thing worse than reality television. They can only ride the idiot appeal of Sex and violence for so long before the premium cable networks will out do them.
I understand they cannot please all of the people all of the time but an attempt should have been made. If the goal is to try to capitalize on the fame of historic shows currently produced like Vikings or Game of Thrones FX really should have done something to stand apart. The premise is shaky, the writing is awful and I have to assume fact checking wasn't even attempted.
What's so wrong... Here we go **SPOILERS**
1) Whomever they used as a historic consultant, fire them! Or listen to them. They tried to set up the concept of being in 14th century wales by beating us to death with the horrible prologue at the beginning of the pilot. History is amazingly vast and full of wonderful stories, why did you not use anything relating to the time period? This would have actually stood a chance in a fantasy world IF not for the following...
2) The writing was awful, I mean seriously awful, the dialogue was trite and the story itself was predictable, I knew most of how the 2 hour pilot was going to go in the first 10 minutes. I stayed tuned in the attempt to give it a chance. The shepherd was gonna blow it, Wilkin Brattle was going to lose the wife and baby, this is all driven by prophecy and therefore the witch and her plagued (leprosy-ridden?)companion had to make it so. Characters are much better if they have choices rather than being forced into prophecy. Its LAZY writing.
3) The armor and weapons Oh. My. God. The only explanation for this is everyone wielding magical vorpal weaponry. Either their chainmail is made of tin foil or all blades are magic. There is no reason for armor to rend like it did, there is no reason for sleeves to split and for one hack of a sword to cut through it. I don't care how strong you are, you cannot put a knife through someone's head that easily not once but twice (the moor woman and Baron Ventris)- truly these must be magical weapons.
4) A bunch of rebel fighters who suddenly get their hands on castle forged steel are not going to become good fighters- swordsmanship was a skill that time of the nobility, it took more training than just a few months smacking at each other in a field. Better writing with realistic weapons would have fixed this AND made Wilkin stand out more as a man who can actually use a sword correctly.
5) There was a huge battle between the English soldiers and the Scots in which Wilkin Brattle participated at the beginning. All units of that time had camp followers and corpse pickers. Yet they had an amazingly bare battlefield- this would have taken a few extras to correct, almost no money Lazy again.
6) The original executioner was laughable- they had a man being skinned and torn apart to introduce their "punisher". He was still and silent until he manages to spit out a gag then gives us a little scream. Clearly FX is trying for the shocking violence and gore but frankly it was laughable.
7) What is with all the branding and burning? - yes it was common in the time period but it didn't work like they portray. Burning is awfully hard on the body- the original executioner would be dead from infection or from renal failure with his penance after beating his wife and son. When flesh is burned the kidneys have to work extra hard to clean up the dead cells in the blood stream, "burning yourself to renew your faith is bullshit". If Wilkin is trying to cover for that then he needed a better line. Yes flagellists did this sometimes, look up how long they lasted. (Hint: The goal wasn't lasting, it was to get God's attention and earn forgiveness- the goal was to meet him soon and look good doing it!)
8) In 14th century Wales you expect us to believe there is a Moor couple, but only one, in ultra-Christian lands extremely far from the middle-east and not in a time period for slaves to be brought back to Wales? And the woman is clearly praying in a format that is extremely Islamic in Christian Wales? I know you have to have token ethnicity but seriously, that is just insulting to people of color to make a throw away character black for the sake of ethnicity.
9) Why do your men folk show so little emotion at losing their homes, not just fire and death but to outright slaughter? Why was the stupid shepherd left to give away their position? I smell a bad plot device If they were serious about not getting caught they would have done things so much differently; clearly they all wanted to be single men on a vengeance quest. Again Lazy writing and really a lack of creativity too.
This is seriously the worst thing on television and I do not see hope of it getting better. I didn't think there was a thing worse than reality television. They can only ride the idiot appeal of Sex and violence for so long before the premium cable networks will out do them.