- Network: Apple TV
- Series Premiere Date: Aug 1, 2025
Critic Reviews
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Momoa's magnum opus cuts a brutal swathe through epic chapters of Hawaiian history, long unseen and long overdue on screen — but you do wish the quieter moments carried as much weight as the barbaric battles.
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The result is an underwhelming epic with a lot of potential to be something truly great someday.
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Momoa is a suitably gargantuan presence, but also has a charisma that makes his scenes sizzle and the other scenes fizzle. .... And the storyline sags when it turns to romance or familial woes – it’s far better when concentrating on the action.
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It is a worthy endeavour, and if it occasionally feels too much like that, it does relax and gain confidence as it proceeds.
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For all the attention Chief of War pays to the beauty and authenticity of its setting, it doesn't put enough emphasis on psychological depth. There's potential for things to expand in future seasons, but for now, Kaʻiana doesn't quite get his due.
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Momoa’s control over the biggest moments is so confident that many viewers will be more than happy to ignore the poorly developed ethical debates and flimsy romances that fill so much of the nine hours. It’s a series whose highlights render its lowlights all the more forgettable — often for worse, but fundamentally for better.
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A series with sluggish pacing, a mostly flat collection of characters, and a compulsion to restate the same handful of ideas again and again. .... So that leaves the show’s action sequences to carry things. When they come, they’re usually excellent.
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As much as I enjoyed learning about Hawaii's past, the dragging, uneventful, and repetitive conflicts in "Chief of War" surely undercut the experience. That's despite the generally stellar performances — particularly by Jason Momoa, Temuera Morrison, and Luciane Buchanan, who might be the revelation of the series (she's fierce, dazzling, and fiery at 5'2") — and a lived-in atmosphere (the island's beauty is breathtaking) that sadly falters by an uninspired execution.
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