Barbarians
Ratings: 3/5
Director: Barbara Eder, Steve Saint Leger
Executive Producer: Andreas Bareiß
Writer: Andreas Heckmann, Arne Nolting, Jan Martin Scharf
Genre: Historical Drama Action, Action Fiction
Release Date: 23 October 2020
Number of Episodes: 6
Star Cast: Laurence Rupp, Jeanne Goursaud, David Schütter, Gaetano Aronica, Bernhard Schütz, Nicki von Tempelhoff, Ronald Zehrfeld, Eva Verena Müller, Nikolai Kinski, Urs Rechn, Mathis Landwehr, Jeremy Miliker, Sergej Onopko, Matthias Weidenhöfer, Florian Schmidtke, Denis Schmidt, Sophie Rois
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Plot: The story will translate you to the European complicated times when the word democracy was not yet found, and the world war was known to all.
The Romans were regarded as the greatest military force of its time. The Roman Empire was stretched up to 5 million square kilometers at its height of power and was an unstoppable fearful machine. As Romans rolled into Germania, the course of history changed forever.
Long ago, Ari (Laurence Rupp), also known as Arminius, a barbarian by birth is offered as a pledge to Publius Quinctilius Varus (Gaetano Aronica), the Roman Empire, by his own father, Segimer (Nicki von Tempelhoff). Segimer is the Reik of their tribe. Ariminius is offered in order to ‘keep the peace’. Varus takes Arminius as a hostage for the good of the land. He raises Arminius as his own boy.
In the current times' Varus, the region’s new Governor decides that more offerings are required to maintain the peace. And this leads to a division amongst various disparate tribes of the Germanic peoples.
Arminius returns to Germania as a soldier of great renown, the commander of a German auxiliary force within the Roman Army, and a Roman citizen. This leads to an inner war in the minds of Arminius who by virtue of his story finds himself in a fix and does not know as to which side he belongs.
Arminius faces complicated conscience in his encounter with his childhood friends Cherusci maiden Thusnelda (Jeanne Goursaud) and local rogue Folkwin Wolfspeer (David Schütter). Thusnedla and Wolfsper are madly and deeply in love though they have to keep things secret because of Wolfspeer’s lowly status.
When the arrogant local Romans turn up at the village and decides to change their word and demand tribute they simply can’t pay, disrespect their local Reik, and cause irreparable damage to Thusnelda’s little brother, Thusnelda and Wolfspeer vow vengeance.
Soon enough Arminius’s joy of being reunited with his buddies turns to ash as he realises the level of distrust and disdains his former people have for him, and his own role as a pawn of the Empire.
Arminius’ inner torment, whether to stay loyal to Varus and Rome, who helped him find a place in the world, or fall in with his fellow ‘countrymen’ guides the story through.
Review: As a platform, Netflix is raising above its viewers’ expectations as it keeps coming with a seemingly infinite supply of handsome international historical dramas during these trying times. The latest addition to the list of a German period piece dramatizing the famed Battle of Teutoburg Forest. It was during these times when the world’s greatest fighting force, the Roman Empire, was embarrassingly brutalized by an alliance of Germanic tribes. This series is truly meant for history lovers.
The basics are that the series Barbarians is rooted in the true story of a Germanic alliance clobbering Romans, thus preventing further expansion of the empire on their dirt lands. The show has obviously not followed the history to the teeth and have taken their own liberties. If sources are to be believed then Arminius was certainly not ‘adopted’ by the Roman governor, the political match between Thusnelda and Arminius took place a few years after the events of the series and the war occurred over a period of four days rather than just a few hours.
In all the show bullseyes every cliche of series like these - violence, sex, a kernel or three of history, gloomy lighting, righteous oppresses, etc. One can say that it is a reasonably well-executed series. Game of Thrones which also belongs to the same genre had a couple of great artistic fighting scenes. Barbarians isn’t likely to achieve that level of guts and fire.
After the first episode, one is not able to see an inevitable large-scale battle sequence, which renders it difficult to determine its artistic merits. Undoubtedly, the beheading scene in the first episode is evidence that carried a promise of some good old-fashioned brutal violence.
The actors and the cast and crew have done a decent job. However, no one stands out of the ordinary.
The series is a must-watch for all die-hard history lovers since it is an okay underdog fare. It is not for everyone’s taste but only those who enjoy solemn and straight-forward dramatizing of tide-changing historical battles. Undoubtedly, there are moments when the connection between the three, Arminius, Thusnedla and Wolfsper finds a creative high, but, alas, history dictates most of the saga here. It is certainly not the best story!
