Knightfall

Some of Knightfall’s CGI action, at least in the cut the network offered to critics, is ambitious but unconvincing. When the show settles the swordplay to push plot around, Knightfall rises to far-fetched.

Ambitious in its scale, but hamstrung by its conventions, Knightfall often confuses violence and brutality for visceral authenticity.

Knightfall proves that it's possible to come equipped with all the right accessories and still produce a show that winds up looking underdressed for a knight on the town.

Knightfall takes a fascinating historical moment and uses it as an excuse to channel a half-dozen fictionalized histories and renders something specific relatively generic.

Even as the narrative gains momentum, Knightfall's mix of screaming matches, head-chopping, and grimness makes for one unpleasant slog. [8 Dec 2017, p.52]

Knightfall is a rather plodding and predictable game of medieval thrones. [27 Nov - 10 Dec 2017, p.9]

Knightfall’s muddied, dull clash of warring religious nonentities never commits to any aspect of its tale, which renders this newest period piece as dramatically inert as it is historically valueless.

The shots are perfunctory, designed to give us just enough information to keep following the story and nothing more. The performances are fine, but they rarely rise above BBC historical reenactment. The scripts are so wrapped up in explaining how everybody’s connected to everybody else that they become exhausting.

Knightfall is deadly serious and full of violent encounters. It also hinges on a bevy of plot twists, some of which are very fun. But it’s also a weakness, as the show focuses almost entirely on its sprawling plot rather than character development. Consequently, the early episodes lag until enough plot points have gone by that the intrigue starts to really payoff, yet it’s hard to really connect with any of the characters (Except maybe Joan, who Ross gives a great deal of depth to as the episodes wear on).

History’s Knightfall is pretty much just a “Vikings” knockoff set in a different, but still bloody, historical period. ... The show’s limited character development is entirely predictable.