Fans of MERLIN, THE LORD OF THE RINGS and THE HOBBIT, there is a new TV series which has hit our screens that might be up your street in the form of BEOWULF: RETURN TO THE SHIELDLANDS.
On Sunday night, ITV broadcasted the first of the 12 episodes of the brand new TV series, BEOWULF: RETURN TO THE SHIELDLANDS and it was rather impressive.
The new TV series is based on the epic poem, which was written at some point between the 8th and 11th century, which tells the story of the titular Scandinavian hero, who is skilled in fighting, happy to wield his sword and is not afraid to confront dragons and other strange beasts.Â
Kieran Bew has taken the lead in the series and has delivered a convincing performance as the new hero of Sunday night TV. Visually, the series is stunning, set amongst some rather impressive and wild landscapes and it feels rather authentic for the time period which it is set in.
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Whenever an audience tries to get into a new TV series, it requires concentration and to some degree, simplicity, as the characters become familiar and we begin to work out the relationships between them. Admittedly, there is a rather large cast who are all intertwined in one way or another and they certainly have a history to say the least, but they do make us want to invest our time in them. The relationships and plot are established and it has the power to create interest in further episodes.
The episode opens up with a young Beowulf riding horseback with his dad, whilst being chased by two mythical-type creatures. Unfortunately, his father dies at the hands of one of them, but Beowulf plucks up the courage to defeat the remaining, rather large, hairy one.Â
We are then taken forward into their present day, where we see a very grown-up Beowulf who is a skilled swordsman and has returned to his former home, Herot, to pay his respects to Hrothgar, played by the brilliant William Hurt. (It is a shame we do not get to see more of him though.) Hrothgar is the dying Thane and head of their tribe and upon Beowulf’s arrival to see him and pay his respects, it is clear that his presence is not wanted. He has the support of his friend, Breca (Gisli Orn Gardarsson) and befriends the local healer Elvina (Outlander‘s Laura Donnelly) – we sniff a budding romance there.Â
Hrothgar’s son Slean (Downton Abbey‘s Ed Speleers) is the most put out by his return and his mother, Rheda (Joanne Whalley) who was selected to lead the tribe over him him as the thane, is not really a fan either.Â
ITV’s JEKYLL AND HYDE did not get off to a good start with all of the criticism it received for violent scenes being inappropriate for the time schedule and BEOWULF could have ventured into the same mix, but thankfully, the battle scenes between the humans and mythical creatures is aptly presented.Â
The writer, James Dormer, has set the scenes well and the plot will certainly grip audiences for weeks to come as Beowulf has been falsely accused of murdering Bayen (Nigel Cooke) – the Thane’s right-hand man – when in fact, it was another creature who crept in and has appeared to have done the deed, but manages to escape whilst Beowulf was in pursuit of it.Â
The opening hour has done a fine job of setting up what could be an action-packed adventure and the CGI is pretty impressive too (although the escapee creature was very reminiscent of a large Gollum from THE LORD OF THE RINGS). The opening credits were slightly reminiscent of GAME OF THRONES , but the TV series is definitely more family friendly and more appropriate for younger viewers!
The characters are all rather likeable too. Bew boasts all of the necessary elements to create an intriguing hero with his performance and the tough smithy’s daughter Vishka (Ellora Torchia), stood out as an exciting kick-ass character for future episodes.Â
Overall, it was an impressive opening, with great performances and good use of CGI. It’s a family-friendly fantasy epic and if it remains as good as the opening episode, BEOWULF: RETURN TO THE SHIELDLANDS could prove to be a hit for ITV.
Verdict
BEOWULF: RETURN TO THE SHIELDLANDS continues on ITV on Sunday’s at 7.00pm.
The Vishka character as portrayed by Ellora Torchia was cringingly awful…just WANTING to have a kick-ass character in female form would be tolerable if the actor playing the part was convincing but, oh dear God, no…Ellora ended up portraying the most cliched of all tough characters….the stagger back, the cough and back of the hand wipe across the mouth after pushing a gate to was LUDICROUS…What is it with actors thinking they need to cough after physical exertion? And NOBODY wipes their mouth when there is NO REASON TO other than ” well I’ve seen it on the telly so it MUST be done after exertion ” WRONG, Ellora…just wrong and incredibly amateurish ! You have to BE the part not PLAY at it! The character was AWFULLY written and even worse was HOW this tough, fireball, kick-ass, rebellious heroine-in-the-making was played….Oh HOW I wished somebody or some thing would kill her forthwith and rid me of this on-screen caricature. A Ripley from the ALIEN franchise she was not, especially after every time she threw herself headlong into yet another silly scenario, we’d be treated to the stagger, the cough and then the expected back of the hand wipe across the mouth…..truly and utterly laughable.
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