This is definitely what homer's epic would look like if you threw in a bunch of 90s melodrama. Basically, Odysseus attempts to return to his kingdom on the island of Ithaca, while telling of his trials on the way. To start with the good; the special effects here are better than they are in most versions of The Odyssey. Sometimes they revert to 90s CGI, which is about as bad as you'd expect, but there's a fair amount of practical work that looks good, and even certain CGI water effects are okay. The acting from the main actor is decent, if a bit melodramatic. There's a little bit of liberty taken with the timing of The Odyssey, bust most of the major events take place in the same order. Oh, and the acting by the suitors of Penelope is better here than in any other rendition; they are perfectly hateable and villanous, and Eric Roberts is brilliant as Erymachus. On the worse side, some of the acting is absolutely awful (most of the other gods/sorceresses/nymphs are almost unwatachable). When the show resorts to 90s melodramatic, over-the-top emotion, it feels like a disgrace to the poetry of the poem. The overall effect is to make the miniseries more of a 90s product than a Homer product. Overall it's enjoyable, barely.
Review of The Odyssey
