"Circulez, il n'y a rien à voir!" Do not listen to the positive reviews of Da Vinci's Demon: the writers were paid because anyone with a modicum of good taste will find this series to be at best uninspired and/or a rip offs melting pot of better shows, and at worst utter tripe. The writers's biggest mistake in Da Vinci's Demon, increasingly common in Hollywood films, is to have taken the audience for idiots, showing total condescension for its ability to think and appreciate challenging TV. Rather than depicting the fascinating personal life of one of the greatest minds and artists of all time, they took the route of presenting Da Vinci as a modern 21st century arrogant know it all prick. The viewer is now supposedly unable to take an interest in a main character who is not a moronic pretty boy sleaze bag, who sprouts anachronistic inanities all day long. I really blame vampire shows and films for this, notably True Blood and the twilight series; da Vinci looks and acts like the typical vampire that all teenage girls twists their panties in a bunch up for: violent, brilliant, mad, metrosexually good looking, drugged up (whether on blood or other), passionate, not afraid of death and a touch of superpowers. Make da Vinci realistic? get a good professional actor, slightly older? No way, that doesn't sell, the real guy must have being a boring old fart who spent all his time working or praying. The writers don't realise the joke is on them, especially if the show gets cancelled, that da Vinci's life was far far more interesting than these frankly boring and oh-so-familiar story lines ( guy likes girl of powerful guy, so guy gets closer to powerful guy to get closer to girl). But the blame does not only lie with the main character, but also with all the show's other elements: insulting disregard for historical accuracy (down to the Orwellian police garb or the nauseating lack of etiquette - da Vinci would not have had a long life if he addressed nobles the way he does here -), cheap looking costumes, gratuitous nudity, cardboard CGI, plain bad one dimensional supporting characters. The most adequate way to describe the show is to compare it to the shows it unashamedly badly steals from: Sensationalism: sex and blood combined, a trend popularised by "True Blood" and found in most peplum and historical dramas ( "Rome", "Spartacus", "The Tudors" "The Borgias", "Vikings" for e.g) or fantasy ("Game of Thrones") A facade of openness: the depiction of homosexuality, found again in the mentioned shows. But here the hypocrisy is complete, as the writers felt that it would not sell enough to paint da Vinci as a homosexual, whereas there are records that he may well have been. Brilliant but slightly clinically deranged or drugged up lead male character. Recent shows always portray, as a form of social realism, the downside of genius: either the main character is socially inept ( Aspergers syndrome or whatnot, ie "Big Bang Theory", "Fringe", new "Doctor Who" etc..) or having to resort to drugs to deal with his problems ( the new "Sherlock Holmes", "elementary"). Here da Vinci is both: a bit mad and a bit drugged up. Just pathetic. Why not show da Vinci as he surely was, a brilliant man with human flaws living in dangerous times? Does not SELL. Heck even the recreation of Florence is ripped of from Assassin creed 2. The traumatising childhood well scene from TDK. Avoid this crap like the plague. It's everything you've seen before but in far worse.
Review of Da Vinci's Demons
