Marco Polo (Season One)

Zach Goodier

Marco Polo is a Netflix exclusive series about the adventures of a young Marco Polo as he journeys with his father to the Far East.  As his father pays homage to Kublai Khan, in an attempt to gain favor in order to establish trade rights.  However, the Khan is displeased with the trinkets he offers.  In an act of desperation, he decides to gift Marco to the Khan, who takes a liking to Marco's cleverness.  Marco is left a prisoner in the Khan’s palace, who quickly becomes tangled in the intrigues of the court, as well as the increasing tensions with the Song to the south, which is being influenced by corrupt officials under the control of the corrupt Chancellor Jia Sidao.

Marco, our young, foolhardy adventurer.

Story:

The story is fairly believable here.  I’m not an expert on this historical period, but from a laymen’s standpoint, it seems believable enough.  There is an attempt to make Marco a bit of an action hero at times, but these scenes are few, and he never starts school Kung Fu master in any fight scenes, which keeps the credibility intact.  Marco is very much an outsider who is abandoned for the sake of his father’s eagerness to establish himself. 

Jia Sidao has ambitions to start a war with Kublai Khan in order to defeat the Mongols and expand his own corrupt power base, but he isn't a fool.  He uses intrigue, cunning strategy, and his own martial arts prowess to give himself a major edge.

Marco feels very dejected at first, but soon begins to grow roots within the Mongol community, and gain favor with the Kublai Khan himself.  This is both his blessing, and his curse.  The Khan’s enemies soon become his, and even fellow members of the Khan’s court, as well as his family, start to set their sights on the foreigner who quickly starts gaining influence in the court.  A lot of the intrigue here feels reminiscent of Game of Thrones, with friends and foes on both sides of the conflict. 

Marco quickly rises to Kublai Khan's trusted advisor, which is both a blessing and a curse, as his fast friendship draws envy and suspicion from some of his fellow advisers.

Characters:

Every character has a story, and an agenda.  While some men are simple, and straightforward, others are cunning and shrewd.  This keeps the viewer on their toes a bit as they try to figure out what characters are friends to Marco, and which ones might lead him down a more dangerous path.  Some plots are followed on-screen, but others take place off-camera, making the viewer try to figure out who the culprit(s) might be, and how it might involve our reluctant hero, Marco.

Even after extensive training, Marco is no Kung Fu master, but he gets a good start, and his training does give great insight into the Kung Fu mentality.

Marco does a good job of seeming both a cunning man, and a lost one.  He struggles to fit into this foreign land and learn its’ customs.  But as he does, he is able to apply his clever nature more and more to adapt to his new station and serve the Khan, to both the joy and loathing of those around him.  However, Marco can seem rather reckless at times, for such a cunning man.  This can be refreshing, but also breaks the immersion a bit, as the Hollywood drama factor sometimes takes hold when Marco stands up to men who can, and under the circumstances should, have him killed.  It’s these moments where it fails to live up the Game of Thrones-type heights that the show seems to aim for.  When characters have plot armor, it removes a lot of the suspense when the characters are put into dangerous situations.

Some supporting characters, like Thousand Eyes and Kublai’s son and heir offer some interesting characters to follow when Marco is off-screen, and Marco’s budding romance with Princess Kokachin offers both perils and opportunity for Marco, despite his status as a prisoner.  However, all of the Khan’s advisors, as well as the dangerous minister, Jia Sidao, do keep the story moving along, even if there are sometimes too many detours along the way.

There are a lot of times when I felt Marco was pushing the limits too far, and he probably shouldn't have been able to just walk away like he did.

Visuals:

The costumes are all very well done, with court officials looking regal, the Khan looking lavish and imposing, and beggars looking poor, while not being stuck in the rags.  There are a few battles in this series, but the lack of casting means they never quite feel up the scope with how epic they should appear.  Sometimes lackluster CGI shows off a massive city, and the battles scenes might comprise a dozen or so actors fighting it out.  It’s moments like these that the budget starts to show, and the epic story starts to feel somewhat flat in its rendition. 

Battles should be a very cool affair, and while they certainly do allow some great fights on an individual level, they often disappoint in the larger scope of things.

Overall:

This is a good series, without a doubt,  just not great. There are a few exceptional characters, like Marco and Thousand Eyes.  However, many of the others only have moments here and there, and the show fails to supports it’s epic story with epic scenes.  It always feels like it’s aiming for the heights reached by fantasy epics like Game of Thrones, and it’s an admirable goal to aim for, but the budget and casting doesn’t allow this show’s grasp to go out as far as its reach. That being said, there is still plenty of story to enjoy here, even if it’s not rendered in the most believable of ways.

I’m hoping future seasons offer a larger budget if they want to do more battles and special effects.  And I also hope the story does more with the Western influence growing in China. This might make Marco’s character shine more as he is torn between his heritage in the West and the life he has begun in the East.

Good:

-Solid story based around real events.

-Both the lead and supporting characters fill their roles well.

-Plenty of opportunity and anticipation for future seasons.

Bad:

-Underwhelming visuals at times.

-Not quite as epic or surprising as it seems to strive for.

Scully Rating: 8 out of 10