The Napoleon miniseries was a pretty ambitious attempt at Napoleon's life. It got the job done but couldn't quite encompass the sheer scale of Napoleon, the Empire and the wars.
First the bad, the battle scenes. If you are looking for a military series about the Napoleonic Wars this will not be your series. If all of the battle or military scenes are added together they would encompass maybe 30-40 minutes. Napoleon fought at least 60 major battles and 12 military campaigns. 9 battles were covered with some scenes as short as 30 seconds. The best battle scene by far was Eylau. Second, the battle scenes have relatively few extras. The battles look like they were fought between regiments not armies. Every battle presented (w the exception of Arcole) had more than 100,000 men present (Leipzig had 500,000) but at most extras amount to 1,000 or less. Most of this was cost I'm sure but it shows.
Another bad item, the series has many foreign actors acting in English. As a result it comes off forced. Many actors were quite good. Josephine, Fouche, Caulincount and to a less extent Napoleon were good. However there are many smaller actors that hurt the series.
For the good: the costumes, uniforms and filming locations were all nice. The story is largely accurate minus a few liberties to make the story flow. The series also moved at a good clip, first episode being the weakest.
Perhaps the part in my opinion is the imagery and attention to detail relating to the wars. Images of burned out churches in graveyards after Eylau, horrors of war in Spain, bodies piled up at Aspern and images of teenage soldiers in 1813 do hit well. The scene with the peasant woman telling Napoleon how her sons were killed in the wars and the desperation faced by many in France at the end also was well done and does homage to a war that killed 5 million people and likely killed a larger percentage of the French population than any other modern war. This made Napoleon a mixed figure in the series, something historians still reflect today.
In the end it was too ambitious of a target for a miniseries. They should have stuck either with the personal/political life or the military not both. To cover Napoleon in true fashion would require an entire actual series covering 10 seasons (not a bad idea). So I cannot blame the series for failing to encompass the totality of Napoleon but is was a disappointment. Still if you know nothing about Napoleon (not the case with me) it gives you a good overview and could leave you wanting to learn more. In that regard it succeeds.
First the bad, the battle scenes. If you are looking for a military series about the Napoleonic Wars this will not be your series. If all of the battle or military scenes are added together they would encompass maybe 30-40 minutes. Napoleon fought at least 60 major battles and 12 military campaigns. 9 battles were covered with some scenes as short as 30 seconds. The best battle scene by far was Eylau. Second, the battle scenes have relatively few extras. The battles look like they were fought between regiments not armies. Every battle presented (w the exception of Arcole) had more than 100,000 men present (Leipzig had 500,000) but at most extras amount to 1,000 or less. Most of this was cost I'm sure but it shows.
Another bad item, the series has many foreign actors acting in English. As a result it comes off forced. Many actors were quite good. Josephine, Fouche, Caulincount and to a less extent Napoleon were good. However there are many smaller actors that hurt the series.
For the good: the costumes, uniforms and filming locations were all nice. The story is largely accurate minus a few liberties to make the story flow. The series also moved at a good clip, first episode being the weakest.
Perhaps the part in my opinion is the imagery and attention to detail relating to the wars. Images of burned out churches in graveyards after Eylau, horrors of war in Spain, bodies piled up at Aspern and images of teenage soldiers in 1813 do hit well. The scene with the peasant woman telling Napoleon how her sons were killed in the wars and the desperation faced by many in France at the end also was well done and does homage to a war that killed 5 million people and likely killed a larger percentage of the French population than any other modern war. This made Napoleon a mixed figure in the series, something historians still reflect today.
In the end it was too ambitious of a target for a miniseries. They should have stuck either with the personal/political life or the military not both. To cover Napoleon in true fashion would require an entire actual series covering 10 seasons (not a bad idea). So I cannot blame the series for failing to encompass the totality of Napoleon but is was a disappointment. Still if you know nothing about Napoleon (not the case with me) it gives you a good overview and could leave you wanting to learn more. In that regard it succeeds.