The Letter for the King Review: A Fairly Satisfactory Fantasy Drama!

The Letter for the King Review: The new Netflix Original, follows the likes of similar epic/periodic dramas akin to The Witcher, Game of Thrones, and Vikings. Directed by Alex Holmes and Felix Thompson, and written for the show by Will Davies, the main cast includes Amir Wilson (‘His Dark Materials’ fame) playing the lead role with an ensemble cast from Ruby Ashbourne, Islam Bouakkaz, Thaddea Graham, Jonah Lees, Jack Barton, and others. The Letter for the King Review The Letter for the King Netflix

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Based on the classic Dutch Novel – De Brief voor de Koning, The Letter for the King follows the story of a young aspiring novice, Tiuri (Amir Wilson) training to become a knight, and has no interest to become one. He lands himself in an important duty to deliver a letter to King Favian of Unawen. Withholding a ton of mystery behind his birth and with quite a few following his back to prevent him from delivering the letter, how Tiuri accomplishes his job is explained in this six-episode series.

First off, The Letter for the King opened on a high note, with a myriad of characters being introduced and many prophecies being narrated, and it is entertaining to watch things unfold. A good deal of effort is put into the production design of the show, and it reflected well in the way the series is structured.

Most importantly, a series of intriguing turn of events kept me captivated for the most past. However, the overall product lacked a solid story. While there are prophecies all through the runtime, I felt it was confusing or left unanswered by the end. Is there a season 2? I don’t know. But the ending of the series left me with no hope and no interest in Season 2.

Well, I would say the entire momentum, the writers and the director attempted to build from the first episode was slowly diminished in the last two episodes, with the last one being a mediocre one. The ending lacked compassion as it was neither gripping nor attention-grabbing. It had all the potential to churn out something great, but the creators chose a less amusing one.

The casting of the series was pretty good or typical for a Netflix original. It had the looks and design comparable to quite a few shows in the same genre, but The Letter for the King failed to reach the standards set by its predecessors. Also, for a fantasy drama, the narrative involved way less fantasy, which is quite disappointing, like I already mentioned the ending was confusing and mediocre.

I never read the novel from which the show is adapted from and would not like to draw any comparison and declare which is better or whether they did justice to its source material. But as a person who likes to watch periodic dramas, it never wholly satisfied nor I was completely disappointed with it.

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The overall output of the series was fairly satisfactory, not considering its middling ending. The series had scope to become even more than it is right now if the creators had concentrated more on how to carry the momentum they initially created. But The Letter for the King is still a pretty decent watch, with only six episodes to finish, I don’t want to complain further. Watch The Letter for the King on Netflix here.

Rating – 3/5 | Grade – B

Images via Netflix