MovieChat Forums > Medici (2016) Discussion > A 6 out of 10

A 6 out of 10

posted 7 years ago by sarainunez
6 replies | jump to latest

I'm confused by both the bad reviews and the amazing reviews this show has gotten. I love period dramas, and the story of the Medici is quite compelling.

It does start somewhat slow, but they do a good job if speeding it up through the middle. The last two episodes is where it start to get pretty good, which is probably what annoying people who are trying to binge watch it in Netflix.i do have some questions of how charismatic Cosimo is from the beginning, which is strange since this very same actor did an amazing job as Rob Stark in Game of Thrones. So it begs the question, is he being a bit flat on purpose? He is pretty stoic and stone - cold in this performance. (Especially when you compare it to his Rob Stark one).

I like some of the other characters, and some are lame. Especially Piero, but according to historical accounts, he was pretty lame so maybe they got right. The one big mis cast in all of this show is definitely Dustin. Hoffman, I love him in other things. But this is a big no. He was the ONLY character not speaking with an accent? Did they not think that strange?

Aside from that, the sound mixing was quite terrible. Music very loud and actors voice rather low. I ended up watching it with captions because otherwise the music was too loud.

The last episode sorta makeup for most of the misgivings, and I'll watch the next season, but hopefully they will fix these issues.

It's certainly no Tudors, which is a shame. I was hoping it would be.

[–] kite_ryan 7 years ago

Is not a 6 or a 10, fot me it's a 7 in general with some parts/actors that are a 8.
Annabel Scholey for me was a 10! Really strong and good actress and beautiful too.
I agree about Madden and Hoffman, the second was bad casting the first was not so deep as his character needs.but personally i think Madden is a decent actor, not a great one. I was surprised by Giulio Caprino (Marco Bello) a good italian actor that was at his first experience with English. Medici is not the tudor but is way better than many historical drama.

[–] Nomad310 7 years ago

He was the ONLY character not speaking with an accent? Did they not think that strange?

I'm confused about this comment. Do you think he should have affected an English accent for an Italian character?

That said, I agree he was miscast. Also agree that Madden is good but not great. Perhaps they were trying to keep the budget down, or planning on upgrading the actors as the story moves into the generation of Lorenzo the Magnificent, should the series last that long?

In general, I love these historical dramas, but there's no getting around the fact that, like anything else, they benefit by casting fine actors, like Jeremy Irons in "The Borgias."

[–] sarainunez 7 years ago

What I meant is that if everyone else is going to speak in an English accent, then at least be consistent. Of course it doesn't make sense but the same can be said of other historical dramas (like Vikings for example). The fact that he was just plainly speaking with a regular accent really stood out.

I'm really scratching my head over Madden though. Maybe all the great actors in GoT covered up just how average is he. I'll have to go back and watch an episode or two for comparison.

Hoping you're right about getting better actors in the long term. Now I'm wondering who would make a great Lorenzo - any names that come to mind?

[–] randommovies2002 7 years ago

Actually Hoffman was doing an accent in some scenes (it was extremely inconsistent). The accent was absolutely cringe-inducing, it was so awful. He sounded like he was trying to mimic an American mafioso accent as in The Sopranos, or Goodfellas, or Pritzi's Honor. It was so bad.

[–] randommovies2002 7 years ago

[–] rfeni-1 7 years ago

If there were anything else left to binge-watch, I wouldn't endure this mess at all. Cosimo? Yeah, he's the sensitive one in the family. I get it. That's why he's so boring. In fact, everybody in this thing is boring. The costumes don't look quite right for the period. And why is a British accent required everybody in a historical drama, regardless of their nationality? This ain't exactly Shakespeare, after all. I give it a 3 out of 10--and the occasional yawn. 😛