In case you guys missed it, at around 11:45 pm last night (26th August 2021), the highly anticipated Kunal Kapoor–Dino Morea TV series, ‘The Empire‘, dropped on the streaming platform, ‘Disney+ Hotstar’. The fictionalised historical TV series is based on the novel series, ‘Empire of The Moghul’, which was written by the husband-wife duo, who collectively writes under the pen name, Alex Rutherford. The first season is based on the very first book of the series – ‘Raiders from the North’. While Disney+ Hotstar made this series to be an Indian version of ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘The Empire’ is far from it.
Sure, at first glance it makes sense. A web series based on the creation of the Mughal Empire in India sounds fantastic. And the fact that there is already a fictional reimagined version of the historical events already available makes it even better. But that’s where nearly everything good about ‘The Empire’ ends. For a show to rise to the level of ‘Game of Thrones’, ‘The Empire’ needed three very important things to go for them – the story, the final script and the casting. And out of these three, only one factor is even worth a mention.
The original source material AKA the story is the only thing worth of note in ‘The Empire’. And that alone, surprisingly makes this show good enough for a one-time watch. However, the casting and final script left much to be desired. Kunal Kapoor, Dino Morea and a couple of others were decent casting choices. However, many of the important supporting characters were either cast poorly or the actors were hampered by the poor script they were provided. The script also made the casting of Kunal and a few others very weak. Trying to be authentic with the language also failed the script.
And all of this is not counting the various continuity errors and badly created CGI. The set pieces are magnificent but even some of them become accidental plot holes. The series definitely had potential. But its high production and ambition adversely affected the final product. Overall, the series is an interesting one-time watch, if you can somehow stomach through the first three episodes.
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