The History Channel
Narrated by: Stan Bernard
10 Episodes
Running Time: 470 mins
Episodes: 4 out of 5 stars
Extras: None
I am a sucker for any kind of Greek mythology. In case you are wondering, yes I am a fan of the 2010 remake of “Clash of the Titans”. Anything about this topic immediately catches my attention. I am in whether it is factual or just fictional. When I heard that The History Channel is going to airing a 10 part episode series, I was immediately interested. In this series you are going to be the covering the following myths and legends: Zeus, Hercules, Hades, Minotaur, Medusa, Odysseus: Curse of the Sea, Odysseus: Warrior’s Revenge, Beowulf, Tolkien’s Monsters and Thor. Each episode is depicted through dramatization with some great CG effects. The makeup and the costumes are not the best but it looks great for what it is.
We start our journey with Zeus and the rise of the Oylmpian gods. We follow his father, Kronos and Zeus’ battle to defeat him. Hercules is next and we follows him through is 12-challenge quest. Hades is depicted as an weary old man in the show but he is still one bad dude. The Minotaur’s story links together the wars between the Cretans and Athenians and how they are tied to the man-eating beast. Medusa is always interesting to hear about and her story is very fascinating. But easily the best part of the series is the two part of the Odysseus, Curse of the Sea and Warrior’s Revenge. It follows his long 20+ year story through the war, fighting the cyclops and trying to return home to his wife. Beowulf is definitely the most bloodiest of the episode and follows pretty closing to the stories. My least favorite episode was “Tolkien’s Monsters,” it didn’t really fit into the series. The episode focuses more on the history of Middle Earth and is quite boring. Lastly, I was excited to catch up on knowledge about Thor legend with Marvel’s new film approaching.
My favorite part of this show is that it doesn’t just tell the stories, it also tries to tie together factual information to place it in real events. I think that is the most interesting part of the show. Even though some might call the series basic storytelling, I was into every bit of information that they dished out. I know it might not be new news to a history major but I am not that and I loved it! Having watched the series on Blu-Ray, I am always happy with the picture on it as it is crisp and the colors are vivid. The sound was also great playing over my 7.1 surround sound. I want more seasons!! Did you hear me History Channel?
I agree the series was great but for me the flaw was an overall lack of balance across the series. 7 episodes of Greek myths in a 10 episode series doesn’t leave room for the series to give different mythologies a fair shake. With 10 episodes I wish they would have stuck with the Pantheon.
Now if it was an ongoing series of 10-20 episodes per season then there would have been room for the Norse, literary, and even Eastern and Modern mythologies… but knowing they were only doing 10 episodes I surprised there wasn’t more consideration in how those 10 episodes would hang together as a series.