Knightfall (TV Series) You'd Know What to Do (2017) User Reviews

Hoping this show improves

[dianasprain · 7/10 · 7 December 2017]

I had high hopes for Knightfall when I first heard about it for the medieval period and knights are favorites of mine. Sadly, I was again disappointed. To add to the previous review, the show's Producers & Writers decided to mix fantasy, legend, and history instead of focusing on the real events. Anyone who has studied the Knights Templar knows the actual events are fascinating enough without adding any Hollywood spin.

Names of some key players from history are missing: Grand Master Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi of Charney, the Templar Preceptor of Normandy. Geoffroi died in prison while Jacques was burned at the stake.

In the first episode, a town herald tells the Jews they have one day to pack up and leave France. In truth, King Phillip IV gave the Jews a month.

In the show, Phillip is depicted as a King who loves his people and hates the idea of hurting people (so far). In reality, he spent much of his rule trying to increase his lands. Een though his father had a treaty with England (hi daughter, Isabella, was betrothed to King Edward I of England), he still began a conflict with the country. He also fought with Flanders.

Templars held their vows to be sacred. Were there members who fell from grace? Of course, but in this episode, the main character "Landry" who is a high ranking Knight is having an affair with a woman who is the Queen of France! This is stepping over the line.

Let's finish this with the shows quest for the Holy Grail. WHy didn't the developers just all this series Grail Knights" so we would know not to take this seriously.

Without wihsing to be shallow..

[marklilley-62411 · 7/10 · 10 June 2020]

Both Queen Joan played by Olivia Ross and Princess Isabella appear quite alot throughout the series and our frequently referred to as beautiful. Well without wishing to be unkind, they may well both be good actresses and I know such things are subject, but neither are in the least physically alluring. Just saying.....

Lackluster Opening Episode

[lavatch · 3/10 · 6 December 2017]

The year in 1291. The place is Acre in the Levant. The situation is the last Crusader state the falls to Islam, marking the end of the Crusading era. But the filmmakers do not concentrate at all on this historical topic. Rather, the major loss is that of the Holy Grail that is fumbled and lost by the band of warrior-monks known as the Knights Templars.

Of course, the cry of the Templars that appears in this film, namely, "We fight for the Grail!" has nothing to do with the historical Knights Templars. These fierce warriors were fighting to retain the great Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. That story would have been much more interesting than a recycling of the Grail legend.

The main focus of the opening episode is the story of Landry, who will take over as the Grand Master of the Templars after the untoward death of Godfrey. But once again, the filmmakers drop the ball by introducing another one of the Arthurian legends into the story. In this version, Landry is like Lancelot, who is engaged in an adulterous affair with Queen Joan. But Joan's husband is Philip IV of France--not the kindly King Arthur, but the greatest enemy of the Knights Templars, Philip IV.

The subplot of the persecution of the Jews in Paris was yet another odd choice on the part of the filmmakers. There was no mission on the part of the Templars to protect the Jews from pogroms. This was yet another plot strand that drew the miniseries away from the historical Knights Templars.

A good opening episode of a historical miniseries should stir up interest in the viewer to become engaged in the medieval world that produced such a unique organization as the Knights Templars. Instead, the program was flat, due to a set of predictable scenes that never got to the heart of the matter in the epic tale of the Crusades.

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

[mayfayne · 1/10 · 9 March 2019]

Drivel. Not even bad enough to merit watching as trash entertainment.

You'd Know What to Do

[Prismark10 · 2/10 · 2 August 2018]

One of the producers of the show is Dominic Minghella behind the daft but enjoyable Robin Hood series for BBC1 over a decade ago.

The opening episode of Knightfall focuses less on the crusades which is a lost cause by now but more on the quest for the holy grail and saving Jews in France from persecution.

It really is a variation on King Arthur and the knights of the round table. One of the Knights Templars is having an affair with the Queen of France.

Not sure what this is doing in the History Channel. If this is what goes for historical facts at the channel then I dread to think the veracity of their other shows.

It really is a bizarre mixture of facts, fantasy and myth. It looks cheap, the special effects are bad. The script was dirge and it was boring.

American Drivel

[peterdeloriolchandieu · 2/10 · 17 July 2018]

We all love a bit of Cape and Sword, swordplay and accompanying violence. This had that, but accompanied by wooden acting and the most uncompromising script. Yes, these sort of programs are based on a very interesting premise, but mass entertainment like this always make light of fact and tries to entertain the viewer. It might entertain tweenies but nothing older. Stilted, stumped and silly. Pity, because this could have made a very good histofantasy series like Grimm, but failed dismally. Less music, sharper script with just a nod to history would have made an excellent series. Tancred sounds and is better than Tancrede. As one critic said earlier, names of key players in the Templars would have made a massive difference, Especially Geoffroi de Charnay, my ancestor's brother, who, by all accounts of the time, was one amazing fighter and politician. I won't be watching the rest. Pity it also wastes the acting talents of some fine English actors.