Netflix series Barbarians.

[Captain Blood]

Maybe Spartacus? Kirk and his rollers?......I once watched French series about William the Conqueror and they had (IIRC) burning wagons at Hastings.......

Well yes, fire has featured as a surprise device in movie battle scenes since time immemorial.
But the modern-day de rigeur cliche of huge war machines improbably hurling spectacularly exploding fireballs, is something that has taken hold in the last 20 years or so. Like I say, it seems that no pre-gunpowder movie or TV battle scene is now complete without them. So boring. So derivative...

[Atheling]

As for what we actually know about the period and battle, it's not too long since if you'd said they were wearing segmented armour in AD9 you'd have been ridiculed.

I think it was Adrian Goldsworthy who wrote that we only know about 10% what there is to know the Early Imperial Roman army Of course, that was a few years ago now so we might know a little more 

[ErikB]

Just wondering, did any of that German sound like Hochdeutsch?

I had a hard time understanding some of it.  I'm out of practice and used to Bayrische, anyway, but this didn't sound like Hochdeutsch to me.

Still having a great time with the show and enjoying practicing my German.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Just wondering, did any of that German sound like Hochdeutsch?

It does. If of the Til Schweiger variety, i. e. rather mumbly and awkwardly casual. Hipster style German cinema.
Arminius adds a nice Austrian accent, too.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Yeah I was gonna say, I didn't have trouble understanding it really, bit it was so mumbly I needed to have subtitles on 

[Antonio J Carrasco]

I think it was Adrian Goldsworthy who wrote that we only know about 10% what there is to know the Early Imperial Roman army Of course, that was a few years ago now so we might know a little more 

Probably, 12% accounting for inflation.

[Captain Harlock]

I finished all six epsodes. Actually i enjoyed it very much despite some rather serious problems.
 Ill start with the bad.
Very weak writing and plot lines. The evil Romans that just wont leave alone the noble savages. Rome is presented as bringing nothing to the table, just sucking up the resources of dirt poor people. No one explains to us how Rome managed to employ so many germanic mercenaries. We never see the cultural attractions of Rome, only cruelty. Arminius is presented as an opportunistic egoist, who only acted against Rome when he realized that he is not getting what he wants, while already he had more than most people around him.
Segestes is demoted to a worm tongue from Lidl, instead of a lord and ally to Rome with a serious biff against Arminius and an army of his own.
The final assault was xompetely anticlimactic and plain stupid. They want to tell us that thousands of veteran legionaires were standing over ditches filled with a flameable substance and nobody smelt or felt anything strange around him. Also when this magic substance was lit a huge wall of ever lasting flame divided whole roman units which could have  easily form up to face the germanic tribes that were also seperated by the flamewall. Generally it was insinuated that the tribes had less men than the romans, who apparently had forgot how to fight and that they wore armour because even a village idiot could outfight veterans with experience all over the empire. The whole eagle snatch sub plot was unrealistic plus the fact that the romans didnt have 200 informers at their disposal the very next day of the crazy party thrown for the group of heroes.
Generally if you want a better take on the same setting i would suggest the comic series The Eagles of Rome.

Now the good.
It was a very decent production with probably the best roman costumes i ve seen to date. Nice photography, very decent fight choreography in the duel scene. I loved both the use of Latin-German and the breaking of the tradition of having british actors posing as mediterranean Romans. That choice alone created the 80% of the atmosphere and demonstrated in a glance the magnitude of the cultural gap between the native Germans and the Roman intruders. The costumes and props played a big silent role there also. We can see why the roman spoils and arms would be extremely valuable to the germanic chieftains. i really appreciated that the natives were dressed in colourful attires to the best of their ability, and were not drenched in mud from head to toe as it usually happens.
To the point we are I was very happy that Thusnelda didnt lead a division of super warrior shield maidens while  Arminius was doing the dishes back in camp.
So overall, it could be a better series but it wasnt bad at all and i would recommend it to anyone who enjoys period dramas.

[Zopenco]

Just finished it. I enjoyed it 
Ended a bit up in the air, but I didn’t think it was too bad overall.

It’s now a golden rule of all ancient, medieval, and fantasy movies and TV shows that battles have to have fire - preferably involving lobbed flaming fireballs. Not sure if Gladiator or The Return of The King is to blame for this, but it’s now an absolute must-have staple. It was fairly lightly handled in this I thought

Kubrick's Spartacus...

Several Spanish Army extras got severe burns filming that one

[Maniac]

Watched the second episode to see if it got any better, and no.  Disappointed with the noble savage vs evil colonizer aspect of the show, among other extremely overt politically correct ideas.

The costuming still look good, but the plot is still terrible.

[Antonio J Carrasco]

Not impressed. The trope of the noble savage vs the decadent civilized has been beaten to death, for me.

The production is good; I also like the effort made with using different languages for the Cheruscii and the Romans, and the outfits used if not perfect at least are good enough to suspend disbelief. The plot, on the other hand, is predictable and still worse the writers telegraph what they are going to do way before it happens. Still worse: there are not nuances, not conflict whatsoever; the characters go through the motions, but there are not sense of impeding doom. You can't root for any Roman character, which would make the stakes higher. Someone has mentioned the comic book Eagles of Rome; that is a good story: you see how the characters are driven towards a crisis, but still you invest emotionally in them and when they meet their fates you really feel for them. That does not happen with Barbarians. You don't give a damm what happens with the Romans or even the Cheruscci. The romantic subplot feels contrived, like something that a teenager could have written.

In a 10 point scale, it would be a 5/10 being generous.

[Atheling]

Not impressed. The trope of the noble savage vs the decadent civilized has been beaten to death, for me.

The production is good; I also like the effort made with using different languages for the Cheruscii and the Romans, and the outfits used if not perfect at least are good enough to suspend disbelief. The plot, on the other hand, is predictable and still worse the writers telegraph what they are going to do way before it happens. Still worse: there are not nuances, not conflict whatsoever; the characters go through the motions, but there are not sense of impeding doom. You can't root for any Roman character, which would make the stakes higher. Someone has mentioned the comic book Eagles of Rome; that is a good story: you see how the characters are driven towards a crisis, but still you invest emotionally in them and when they meet their fates you really feel for them. That does not happen with Barbarians. You don't give a damm what happens with the Romans or even the Cheruscci. The romantic subplot feels contrived, like something that a teenager could have written.

In a 10 point scale, it would be a 5/10 being generous.

I think that's what I gave it earlier and I agree, apart from all the 'normal' wargamers gripes, it was dry and lacked any real dynamism and drive in the characters.

[FierceKitty]

Kubrick's Spartacus...

Several Spanish Army extras got severe burns filming that one

Worst waste of a brilliant director known to history.

[Atheling]

Worst waste of a brilliant director known to history.

Meh, I think he made up for it later by a very high margin 

[Captain Harlock]

Not impressed. The trope of the noble savage vs the decadent civilized has been beaten to death, for me.

The production is good; I also like the effort made with using different languages for the Cheruscii and the Romans, and the outfits used if not perfect at least are good enough to suspend disbelief. The plot, on the other hand, is predictable and still worse the writers telegraph what they are going to do way before it happens. Still worse: there are not nuances, not conflict whatsoever; the characters go through the motions, but there are not sense of impeding doom. You can't root for any Roman character, which would make the stakes higher. Someone has mentioned the comic book Eagles of Rome; that is a good story: you see how the characters are driven towards a crisis, but still you invest emotionally in them and when they meet their fates you really feel for them. That does not happen with Barbarians. You don't give a damm what happens with the Romans or even the Cheruscci. The romantic subplot feels contrived, like something that a teenager could have written.

In a 10 point scale, it would be a 5/10 being generous.

You are very right. You cant root for any Roman character. It was a wasted chance for some real drama. Getting to know some legionaries unsuspected of their impending doom. We dont even get to properly know Varus the main antagonist. What drives him? What is he aiming for? Does he have a family? Why did he invested on Arminius? Thats why I said that The Eagles of Rome comic do the same story way way better. Ok granted its a totally different medium, but yet again they didnt even made an effort. Btw nobody misses poor Flavus in that village except the brief mention by his father.

[bluewillow]

I was disappointed, I see the early production shots and was excited by the early shots of the legionaries kit.

A real
Missed opportunity I thought of telling the real story.i watched it in German and English. The German was much better. One day someone hopefully will produce a non dumbed down version of events.

Cheers
Natt