Britannia

The longer you stick with this nine-episode season, the more the players reveal themselves. It’s a big part of how Britannia,”written and co-created by Jez Butterworth (“Black Mass,” “Edge of Tomorrow”), transcends its genre roots.

The first five of the nine episodes provided for review also have echoes of “Spartacus,” and “Rome” slopped with a sauce of graphic novel-style drama. That’s not the worst a person can say about a series.

Violence it has. Also, domestic drama. Dynastic intrigue. A soupçon of the supernatural. Set in A.D. 43, during the second Roman invasion of the British Isles-to-be, the nine-part Britannia also displays what might be an unfortunate side effect of the rise of bingeable drama--the seeming nonchalance with which writers are approaching a storyline.

Britannia doesn’t slow down long enough to be as engaging as the HBO show, but ultimately, it has enough going for it that if you like such fare--not everyone is a “GOT” fan--you can get into the Amazon show.