Da Vinci's Demons

Leonardo may not like what Starz has turned him into, but you probably won't mind this joy ride.

Its real appeal should be to viewers who like their TV history entertainingly out there.

We see promise in Tom Riley's Leonardo da Vinci. [12 Apr 2013, p.68]

While the first two episodes of "Da Vinci" are overly convoluted, the action moves at such a rapid pace and unfolds with such giddy enthusiasm that it's easy to just sit back and enjoy the ride.

It's all great fun, a feast of eye and mind candy into which a few shreds of leafy greens have been added for content.

No one should base a term paper on it, but Da Vinci's Demons is at least an entertaining lie.

The plot strands don’t always come together smoothly, some of da Vinci’s mystical, drug-addled visions are pretentious, and the CGI re-creating 15th-century Florence is spotty. And the general tone of the show will not satisfy anyone looking for a serious take on a historical figure or era. But Da Vinci’s Demons is an entertaining series with one huge factor working in its favor: Unlike so much of what we see on TV lineups, it aims to be different.

[The Renaissance and Leonardo] bring moments of transcendent beauty to the series, which was written by David S. Goyer, and is laced with aha moments of glorious invention and the scent of mysticism. The line between mystery and bafflement is a thin one, though, and at times it is impossible to tell what's going on or who's who in the flickering torchlight. There is also a distraction, at least initially, in the portrayal of Leonardo--who comes across as a weird amalgam of Peter Pan, MacGyver and a Chippendale.

Da Vinci’s Demons breezily and capably finds a balance between amusing wit and dour drama.

Suffice it to say Da Vinci's Demons (warning: it contains nudity, violence, and profanity) has a lot of balls in the air. But it manages this juggling act with aplomb.

There’s a lot of material to mine here and Goyer, Starz and Da Vinci’s Demons are off to an entertaining start.

Riley takes a bit of getting used to as Da Vinci, but once one adjusts to the program’s tone, it’s an entertaining serialized plot with plenty of twists, nudity and violence, but not the same grim streak or stuffiness of something like "The Borgias."

To work, this overheated alchemy needs a magnetic Leo, but Tom Riley is miscast--too smart-alecky and brash. [13 May 2013, p.46]

Suspend disbelief and you’ll have fun, but believe and you’re in trouble.

When Da Vinci's Demons is barreling at top speed, unapologetically defiling history with its macabre absurdity, as in the surprisingly exciting second episode, "The Serpent," which ditches the disconnected structure of the pilot for a full-on detective yarn with an unexpected last-minute twist (think Sherlock Holmes set in the Renaissance), the show's faults, however obvious they may be, gradually fall by the wayside.

It feels at times like part “Da Vinci Code,” part “National Treasure,” part “Borgias” and part “Sherlock,” all with its own underlying tongue-in-cheek bemusement.

[A] glossy, silly, intermittently entertaining new series.

Series creator, director and writer David S. Goyer (scribe for Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy) twists the already amazing life of the 15th century artist and inventor into something fantastical--but not altogether convincing.

Ultimately, I found Da Vinci's Demons ridiculous but fairly amiable.

Da Vinci’s Demons halfway succeeds on the strength of its vigorous, devil-may-care approach, even if it’s also almost thoroughly preposterous in terms of the central character’s deductive powers and abilities.

Da Vinci’s Demons [is] not a terrible show, nor a terribly good one, but a peculiar hybrid invention whose parts don’t match and that never quite takes flight.

Historical accuracy is only hit-and-miss in Da Vinci's Demons. And that describes how entertaining it is too: More miss than hit, but it does grow on you.

If Mr. Goyer fumbles the pilot in introducing Leonardo's world, he salvages the endeavor in episode two with a good story about da Vinci's inventions for the Medicis.

Demons is possessed by pretentiousness when it tries to be serious and by silliness whenever Leonardo becomes an instant swashbuckler.

Sadly, the story is mystifyingly botched, failing as it tries too hard to be an action-packed mystery of secret societies and Dan Brown-esque intrigue with a strange penchant for geek humor.