Despite being available for Netflix viewers at all times, Anchor Bay and The Weinstein Company are still releasing the first season of Marco Polo on Blu-ray and DVD. The show was met with mostly negative reviews when it came out and it’s hard to see why not. Marco Polo is rarely about its title character and the actor playing him struggles to keep our attention.
Since Marco Polo’s adventures remain famous, despite happening over 700 years ago, a series based on him sounds like the perfect idea. The producers could take viewers on a journey to 13th century Asia, where the Mongolians battled to take control over all of China. Polo could act as an audience surrogate, as we see epic battles take place on wide-open fields. It could be like Game of Thrones, but set in the real world.
Unfortunately, Marco Polo isn’t that engaging, despite covering all that. The simple issue is that Lorenzo Richelmy, an Italian actor who never performed in English before this series, is too inexperienced to carry a show like this. Part of it is his fault. His acting is hardly impressive and he allows himself to disappear alongside much more experienced actors. He also doesn’t have much chemistry with Zhu Zhu, who plays the “Blue Princess” Kokachin and Polo’s forced love interest.
But he can’t shoulder all the blame. Creator John Fusco and his writers seem far more interested in Kublai Khan (Benedict Wong) and his rivalry with Song chancellor Jia Sidao (Chin Han) than Polo’s struggle to survive in an unknown society. There are episodes where Polo barely has a scene or two, as Khan’s drive for more power dominates.
Another issue with the show is that there are just far too many characters. Too much time is spent following the inner political conflicts of the Song Dynasty when we should be keeping an eye on Marco’s growth within Mongolia. The show is desperate to be a Game of Thrones rip-off instead of being what it could be - an interesting window into the man who arguably inspired the Age of Discovery singlehandedly.
At least the Weinsteins money is well spent on glorious production design and CG imagery to create wide shots. There was also a clear investment in getting some of the best martial arts experts to perform in the show.
The Blu-ray presentation of the series splits the 10 episodes over three dual-layer discs. The third disc includes a surprisingly heavy load of bonus material, including a 40-minute making-of documentary and 45 minutes of deleted scenes. There’s also featurettes on the martial arts, fighting scenes, visual effects and the main title sequence.
Marco Polo will need to do a lot in its second season if it wants to be taken seriously. Richelmy does get a bit better as the first season goes on, but the writers continue to shift attention away from him. Fusco has to embrace the title character of his own show, not run away from it.
Marco Polo is out on Blu-ray on Dec. 15.