The Nemanjic Dynasty: The Birth of the Kingdom (2018) User Reviews

An empty shell at the opening

[vveljko-756-664763 · 4/10 · 1 January 2018]

This is far from good, even decent beginning of this long awaited epic series. Such complex historical characters are completely undeveloped preventing spectators from being emotionally involved in the story. Dialogues are empty, not convincing enough and pointless on many ocassions. Costumes and photography cannot bridge all the gaps which are huge, particularly in terms of script and acting. Judging the first episode, I cannot conclude what the idea of the authors was, because this looks more like an educational program. In my opinion, the only good moment in the entire episode was the scene of Stefan Nemanja in captivity praying to Saint George. This is too little and not nearly enough. I respect the effort ot the authors, but they had a brilliant example from the past how historical series of such genre and complexity should look like. Thus, an epic saga on the life of Vuk Karadzic that was filmed 30 years ago set hardly reachable artistic standards while series on Nemanjics apparently turned from that path at the very beginning offering an below average outcome. I do hope that situation will improve in later episodes, but I am afraid the damage has alredy been done.

Catastrophic

[jockeauditore · 2/10 · 27 April 2018]

Seriies is just waste of time, i have the feeling that even some kid could do it better! Hope that production will learn more from their mistakes

A moderate failure, although not unwatchable

[Dzombache · 4/10 · 18 April 2020]

Awaited as a "Serbian GoT" (wich it could never be, for a number of reasons), the show posted high expectations. On the other hand, many of us knew deep down in our minds what to expect of the whole thing, but we didn't want to admit it to ourselves. What we got was dissapointing, to say the least. Based on other popular modern history action-dramas many people thought we could get a history spectacle that would excite the crowd and introuduce young audience to the important part of Serbian history. Instead, we got uninspiring screenplay, boring dialogues that led to moderately bad acting from otherwise respectable actors and most notebly - lack of action and true excitment that could entertain the masses. The show's excuse was that they are primarly based on available history facts. Although true to some point, it was OK for the directors to move away from them when they felt necessary and to make up some segments. The problem is they did it very badly, which made the show look like a mix of history lessons and poorly written drama with some annoying and almost cringy mistakes along the way. A decent number of people decided after a few episodes not to follow it anyomre, and the rest mainly stayed so they could count the f*** ups or to see the history portrayed. To sum up, the show is not unwatchable for Serbian crowd, but I would not recomend it to anyone else who is not interested in Serbian history. We had a solid number of worse shows that aired on Serbian TV much longer than this one, but that is no excuse.

Falls short of expectations

[lordrango · 5/10 · 31 December 2017]

Suffers from mediocre script, direction and acting.

Actors are unconvincing. Granted the material they have to work with isn't the best (to say the least) but they lack energy and passion.

Dialogues can be cringe worthy at times. It feels like the show is expecting to create tension and emotional involvement by merely being set in the time when medieval Serbian state was being created.

Characters lack any development and appear to be nothing more but a bare bone recreation of historical characters, which is very weird since important historical events like battles are merely hinted at or shown in the background, while majority of screen time deals with character interacting with one another.

Cinematography is great and really puts you in the mood, but it alone isn't enough to make you emotionally involved, even if you're a Serb. For any non Serb, this is going to be extremely boring.

Very little substance, all in all. It feels like the producers are expecting success simply because of the time period it is set in and money spent on cinematography.

Hopefully it picks up, but beginning feels very underwhelming.

Epic historical period of Serbian history that failed to be portrayed in this series.

[integraline · 1/10 · 13 January 2018]

I'ts a shame that this large production that we have all eagerly been waiting for failed dismally. Characters are bland. The fighting scenes are bland. There is absolutely no emotion in any of the characters or dialogue between them. There is no substance. Casting is absolutely atrocious. Whose idea was it to give the main role of the founder of the Serbian kingdom Stefan Nemanja to an ugly Montenegrin actor who previously acted in an anti-Serbian production? It would have been better if they gave the role to someone like Zarko Lausevic. Also, one of Stefan Nemanja's little children had an annoying over-forced Belgrade snobby accent which annoyed every time the little brat opened his mouth- historically this was inconsistent as Belgrade didn't exist at that time. I wish i could give this 0 stars.

Sad

[milicko-mijatovic · 1/10 · 1 January 2018]

It is not even amateur work. don't vaste your time watching it

Just go to wiki

[dikannakid · 1/10 · 26 February 2018]

Do yourself a favor and just go to wikipedia. Characters in the show just deliver wikipedia lines in first person, deprived of all emotion, so the actors seem to be bad, but they have only been given a crap script that they can't emotionaly conect with

Horse Excrement

[dennstan · 1/10 · 28 February 2018]

Utterly bad. Better go watch a rock for 2h straight

Very Very poor

[branko-markovic77 · 1/10 · 9 January 2018]

Bad script, bad acting, poor production... Just don't waste your time...

Bad,very bad

[bojanpeladic · 3/10 · 3 January 2018]

Very bad first episode.Poor acting,poor script...i hope that second episode will be better.

Too demanding audience, long time not filmed historic drama

[popdebeliluka · 4 January 2018]

It is too soon to judge entire drama of 12 episode based on one episode. We haven/t seen yet the main actor Vojin Cetkovic in the role of Stefan Prvovencani. The problem with the first episode were the children. Sadly Serbian cinematography in the last 30 years doesn/t have talented children actors who could act like 12 century prince of Serbia which is of high demand for such a young age. One of the main problem was language and interacting among family .The real language of that time was Slaveno Serbian the church language which is of no use today after reformation of Vuk Karadzic and we would need subtitle.Also reason about such thing is there is very few written from that time about their family life. They needed to fill empty space with practically no documented family dialogue. One problem is also that Serbian has not filmed serious historical drama for over than 30 years, for 30 years actors have not had such demanding roles which were more often in Yugoslavia. Also my personal opinion is that Serbian public is too demanding and that internet and documentaries on various subjects as much as talk shows have made Serbian audience too much analytic and way over in critical thinking. Serbian public now hunts every mistake they can find in every historic drama after Kosovo battle movie mistakes fearing they would be mocked by audience abroad. I also think that Serbian public is pushing over with critical thinking not trying to relax in the movie. Language will not be problem for the western audience. Myself personally have found scene of Stefan Nemanja/s miraculous and mystical escape from cave dungeon and battle scenes very good filmed. Battle of Pantian was filmed very good with many stuntmen. But to have real judgment about this drama we will have to wait Voin Cetkovic part in drama. Only problems are acting part with where Nemanjic family is presented and few lines of Emperor Manojlo. The costumes are authenthic and many time and money was spent in recreating costumes and buildings. For those who like battles and realistic costumes this is the drama.

Good show with a tendency to become better

[kurjak-26438 · 10/10 · 15 January 2018]

It looks like there is a lot of unreasonable bad user ratings. I think this is mostly because of Balkans nationalism and hate towards certain people than how the show really is. It really isn't fair to rate it 1 or 2. Honestly, I would give this show a 6.5/10 for the first few episodes with a tendency to become better over time.

Promising, but not for long...

[casssiopea · 5/10 · 2 January 2018]

Theme and title was really promising, so as the scenery and costumes. But as soon as we meet family of Stefan Nemanja, his wife and kids, its becoming obvious this is a failure... failure in terms of communication between everyone, but especially between Stefan Nemanja and Ana, and their kids. There is too much gestures and mimics. The way of talking to each other is casual and lacks respect and seriousness of those times. Their dialogues seems like they are taken from American historical soap operas. Acting without depth and inner drama. Scenario and acting are being really superficial. To bad for something that had a potential to be a great historical, Serbian Orthodox Christianity and patriotic drama.

Terrible

[yaypunk · 1/10 · 15 January 2018]

I was looking forward to this, but costumes are horrible, they look like I've made them myself, story line is...no idea how to describe it, actors sound like they are taken from a cartoon, no character depth or any depth at all, they look and sound like 2d characters. Battles? You won't see any decent one, that's for sure. Different battles are being shown and they look IDENTICAL, I even noticed scenes repeating, which is really sad. For something that took so long to make, and was spent a great amount of time...well, just don't watch it. You'll cringe. You'll wish you didn't start watching it at all. Horrible experience.

I can honestly say that this is the worst series that I've ever seen.

We all know its bad

[savagekarp · 1/10 · 20 February 2018]

The script is mediocer the acting is bad and the fights are terrible.

Nice opening credits

[jansenandreasart · 1/10 · 2 April 2018]

After seeing the first trailers I was a bit worried. Following the pilot episode on 31.12.2017, fear grew into disappointment. However, it seems I was wrong. It is far worse than anyone could have expected. Bad acting, period incorrect vocabulary, tons of historical inaccuracies, directing and editing as if it was done by an untalented student, script so bad that it's not even worth mentioning...The series which was supposed to present Serbian medieval history with pride and dignity turned out to be a poorly executed comedy. The only good thing remaining are the opening credits.

Low budget Anti-Serb movie

[boki-34968 · 1/10 · 11 July 2022]

Amateur made TV Series, looks very low budget.

Except that, Serbs are presented as iron age barbarians pretty much.

Don't waste you time watching this.

Shameful

[harryplinkett14 · 1/10 · 23 April 2020]

A colossal disappointment regarding every aspect of production. Bad screenplay, bad costumes and sets, bad action scenes... If you are going to make a series about the founding dynasty of the Serbian state and church, do it properly. This is just an insult.

Serbian Games of Thones

[riverside-704-596061 · 18 February 2018]

Communist Yugoslavia was a poor communist country, with most of the movies glorifying WW2 battles and communist victories,and there was really little space for historical movies other than those WW2 battle.Most of the time, these were just a communist propaganda, with little connection to historical truth. It is really a refreshment to see a series like Nemanjici, which shows how a historical movie should be made. All the complexities of dealing with the Romans,Venetians,Hungarians, as well as quarells among brothers are well shown. I can't wait to see the second episode, and introduction of other great actors such as Nebojsa Glogovac and Vojislav Cetkovic. Serbian past has virtually hundreds of motives for great series like this,and I hope more historical movies and series will follow.

UNDER EXPECTED

[markojaksicbg · 5/10 · 18 April 2023]

The series had great potential at the beginning, the budget, as well as the announcements, gave viewers hope that it would actually be good. However, from the very beginning, from the opening scene of the first episode, everything SLOWLY began to fall into the so-called tunnel, into the water. The potential of the script was wasted, and the actors and their characters used expressions from the modern era, even though it is set in the 13th century. The direction in the first few episodes was solid, trying to create a kind of Serbian version of Game of Thrones, however, it seems that after some time the direction itself wasted its potential, probably trying to follow the script faithfully, just like that, instead of its personal, creative approach as, unfortunately, below each level is written. The acting was surprisingly divided, however, every good performance was short-lived, precisely because of the misdirection of the direction and script. I don't want to be clever, but the audience is visibly disappointed. I encourage people who defend and support the series, because everyone has their own taste. I myself think that the series was good in terms of appearance, production, scenography and costumes. Artistically, as well as from the perspective of the viewer, the rating should be much lower, however, it is only because of the production effort and budget.

Great effort to give an insight into medieval Serbian lands and life

[bothapatak · 8/10 · 1 January 2018]

I must admit that I've been waiting this series for a long time. It certainly isn't the best historic series one could watch, but it is good enough. And you shouldn't forget it was made in Serbia, not in Hollywood. If you expect Game Of Thrones quality, you better skip it.

The best aspects are scenography and costume designs. Landscapes and costumes are beautiful and realistic and they really make you feel you're sucked into medieval Serbian lands. Acting could have been better. The worst part is battle-ground fighting. It was ugly and grotesque to watch the great battle of two great armies (Serbian and Byzantine) with just a few people on the field, all together no more than a couple of hundred. If they haven't had enough money to pay more stunts and extras they should've skip those scenes. The action takes place quickly and is faster than it should be. It appears that scenario is more oriented to an action and less to a personal drama which I think should be the opposite.

I hope next episodes will be better, but even this first one is quite good. The history of Serbs is 14 centuries long and it's very rich, with great heroes, battles and political overturns (As someone said: the history of Serbia is a history of its calvary), but is wasn't exploited on screens at all. Maybe this series change something about it.

Amazing costumes, down-to-earth setting and visual experience

[pricesadvatocka · 8/10 · 7 January 2018]

Great costumes, great scene-setting, ambiance ... quite authentic, down-to-earth and not pumped up or gaudy (but I guess people like heavily used CGI, exaggerated special effects, etc ) ... So many mean comments are unreasonable and unjustified. First , this isn't a fantasy, second , not so many millions of dollars could have been invested in the making of this show, so it's downright silly to compare it with some other shows or expect it to be such and such . Be realistic. The acting, to be honest, could have been better , I hope to see that improved in future episodes . Good luck to the authors.

Opinion of people abroad

[popdebeliluka · 7 January 2018]

I showed the trailer for Nemanjici to one of my Dutch friends he said it looks great and that he can t wait until drama is presented abroad. As concerning acting if you are not from Serbia or parts of Yugoslavia you will not find acting as a problem since Serbian audience and audience in the Balkans have created very complicated critical way of thinking due to political situation and many documentaries on subject of Serbia and Serba past. Have in mind Serbs are people who like to deny quality if quality is not as they wanted as they deny many things about them for instance partsan struggle in former Yugoslavia is also denied of it s historic right. Serbs enjoy when TV dramas are plagiarism like shadows in the Balkans.

Try to look deeper

[psyche1979 · 10/10 · 14 September 2021]

The misunderstanding of this series is devastating. The conclusion is that all battles and wars are meaningless. Bloodshed is committed by people who are obsessed with hatred. Not to mention the other sins of our sinful souls. We are all transient. In that battle, either with oneself or with others, there is no winner. We are all losers. I am really disappointed with so many misunderstandings. I hope God will have mercy on our lack of knowledge, as He has already done once.

People have misunderstooded purpose of these series.

[mandicfreelancing · 10/10 · 25 June 2021]

It saddens me to see so much people negatively reacting to this series, the problem is not in series, the problem is in people reviewing it wrongly while not understanding what they're even reviewing. The purpose and the goal of these series were not to create 'Serbian Game Of Thrones', this is not some polished Hollywood drama, this is pure or better said 'raw' historically correct series that showed us Serbian earliest history and how people really looked and lived in those times. For me this is non-commercialized masterpiece, it sticks to the truth and history, not to the lies. Purpose of this series is to culturally enrich and educate people, this something for soul, not something for weekend popcorn time, that is why most of people don't like it, it's just not for everyone.

Another thing that i would like to mention is that quite a good amount of these reviews were influenced by nationalism, politics and hate from anti-serbian oriented people, i believe that those things should be put aside when it comes to movie industry, this is not a place for that kind of stuff.