Bullet Points: Barbarians (S1 Ep1) “Wolf and Eagle”
The Roman Army stomped, slashed, and slayed its way through Europe en route to creating an empire greater than any other at the time. Whether you’re a Romulus/Remus origin supporter or an Aeneas of Troy person, the early story of Rome is soaked in the blood of those unfortunate enough to be in close proximity of it. Imperial Rome, however, stretched the limits of what the mighty society could bring under its shadow. A shadow that we’ll see dimmed the hopes of those living under it but couldn’t fully extinguish the bright hopes of freedom from the Empire.
- Teutoburg Forest: History buffs will know the Battle of Teutoburg Forest as one of the times that the Romans got their Imperial asses handed to them in such a stunning fashion, that they didn’t dare to return to the area to conquer like before. Barbarians begins with a glimpse into the battle but instantly shoots us back to the beginning of our story, where we meet many of the men and women who would make this battle happen.
- Life in the Cherusci: Tribal life in present day Germany wasn’t so bad for the Cherusci tribe. They hang out, raise their children, fight some wars from time to time, and then it’s all thrown into the unknown. The Romans show up and finally want to cash in on those sweet, sweet tributes. It, of course, doesn’t go over well with the people of the tribe as they are starving themselves, but they do attempt to gather what they can and send it off to the Roman encampment.
- Sorry, not sorry: Early on in the episode we meet the duo of Thusnelda (Jeanne Goursand) and Folkwin (David Schutter). They are two young 20ish Cherusci who totally want to be with one another but Thusnelda is promised to another guy from a different tribe. She’s also the daughter of one of the elite members of the tribe and Folkwin is just a warrior.
- Ocean’s Eleven AD: Folkwin and Thusnelda decide that they are going to steal the eagle from the Roman encampment. It’s a bold move, no doubt, and one that would have certainly gotten them crucified if they had been caught. They enlist a couple of other buddies from the Cherusci village to help out and go about their Ocean’s Eleven-style heist.
- The Prodigal Son returns: This may fit into that biblical time-frame but this son is the young boy who was taken hostage from the Cherusci reik way back when. Barbarians normalizes the act of taking children as hostages to help enforce Roman law on the tribes. Is it messed up? Of course, but it seems that it was at least effective in this case. The returning boy was once known as Ari, but now he goes by Arminius. His adopted father Varus is the leader of the three Roman legions now in the territory, and Arminius returning to his old stomping grounds to face his father is the kind of dramatic cliffhanger that I enjoy.
First Impressions: Barbarians is right up my alley. In fact, by the time that you read this post there is a good chance that I will already have watched this entire season. I enjoy the fact that it is a German show and I get to see something different from the usual British actors playing Romans that I’m used to. Barbarians feels like it knows what it is doing and the lines never feel like they were torn from the pages of a 2000’s script. The relationship between Folkwin/Thusnelda/Arminius will obviously be pretty important throughout the series, and any history buff will know how that Battle of Teutoburg Forest ended. I’m looking forward to the rest of this one and I’ll bet that this series will pick up many of those fans of shows like Rome and movies like Centurion and Gladiator.
