MARCO POLO
Netflix, 12:00 a.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: All 10 episodes of the first season of Netflix’s newest drama series, Marco Polo, are available today beginning in the very early morning – but this one may have a tougher time gaining traction, even if it gets a sizable initial sampling. It sets out to be an epic period drama, colorful and fascinatingly unusual in the manner of the classic NBC miniseries Shogun – but that 1980 drama, starring Richard Chamberlain as a seafaring stranger in a very strange land, was much more credible and compelling, and sophisticated. This new drama has its international cast all speaking English, as best they can, with more emphasis on set design than character development. Lorenzo Richelmy plays the title role, with Benedict Wong as Kublai Khan. But it’s the women, played by Olivia Cheng, Shu An Oon and others (including Joan Chen from Twin Peaks), who make the best argument for tuning in. That, and the Mongolian throat singing used on the soundtrack to open the series.