By Kiran Sidhu
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
A new historical fantasy series airing on FX tells the tale of a knight in medieval Wales who decides to leave his war-mongering life behind to become a peasant farmer, vowing to never take up the sword again.
Luckily for us, Wilkin Brattle only keeps this vow for a full 20 minutes before bashing in the head of an unsuspecting background character.
He goes on to steal the identity of an executioner in order to get closer to those who have caused the deaths of his loved ones. Thus the menial life of a disillusioned farmer ends and the epic story of “The Bastard Executioner” begins. Or, rather, it will begin once our protagonist remembers his own cliche motive somewhere in the next few episodes.
Often the main plot is forgotten, instead relying heavily on shock to please the masses with gratuitous scenes of blood, torture and sex.
Kurt Sutter, series creator of the popular “Sons of Anarchy,” gleefully couples scenes of graphic violence with religious paraphernalia for what we can assume to be satire.
The religious paraphernalia offers nothing to the narrative other than to be controversial. Eventually you become so disenchanted with these quaint moments, you find yourself playing “Where’s the Cross?” or musing about Ed Sheeran’s supposed cameo.
Besides a weak attempt at satire, the dialogue is also far from witty. To further this disappointment, the editing and camera work is mediocre. This is not the quality one would expect from such a hyped show, aptly leaving you with a cynical taste in your mouth about the future of television.
However, I cannot deny that it did show glimmers of hope after the pilot episode.
After rushing through the events that led Wilken to commit bloody revenge, the story slows down and starts to focus on the antics of its more interesting characters.
Besides the motley crew of peasants that follow Wilken around, the names of whom I barely remember, the female characters stand out amongst the wave of bearded, long-haired white men.
Lady Love, the baroness of Vestishire, becomes one of the best characters of the show. Her motives and feelings are deeply complicated, and most importantly you feel for this tragic Welsh noblewoman.
To top it off she has some of the best lines in the series. Her gentle wit and courage is what salvages the story from being bland and tedious.
Anora of the Alders, the wise wood witch, and Jessamy Maddox, an abused mother, also stand out as potentially great characters.
Anora creates mystery in her morally ambiguous persona while Jessamy, whose mental deterioration has started to hurt the ones she loves, gives the series life where there seems to be only death and suffering.
Although it’s a man’s world (and plot), the women carve out spaces for themselves that other characters dare not touch, and even Wilkens finds himself overshadowed by these powerful characters.
Though most aspects of this show are subpar, I do have to give kudos to these wonderful ladies. This show definitely has the foundation to become great especially if these characters get more chances to shine, and not just be relegated to the roles of love interests.
Here’s hoping that Sutter realizes this before it’s too late.