Clash of the Gods: The Complete Season One [Blu-ray] Reviews

THE FLICK
You've got to hand it to those ancient Greeks. Anytime something happened around them they couldn't explain, they made up elaborate stories about gods and goddesses, demigods, monsters, extramarital affairs, quests and every yarn one could imagine to interpret their surroundings. Death scared them? Why, there's a god of the underworld who makes sure a soul goes to one of three places with no hope of escape. Lightning hits a tree and it bursts into flames? Zeus was angry. The walls of Troy seem impossible for humans to build? Greek gods Apollo and Poseidon did it. These stories, and many, many more, are contained in the ten episodes comprising Clash of the Gods, a History series with the sole purpose of examining these tales from a real life perspective.

Let's be clear from the outset: this series is talking about the myths and legends of an ancient society using information solely from etchings and carvings found buried deep in the ground. (A modicum of scientific truth is also brought to the forefront to explain the events which shaped the Greek world.) These are extrapolations of what these people believed and how they transferred their own shortcomings onto the gods they created. A half-man, half-god being called a demigod was apparently created so the humans could feel closer to the gods themselves. Zeus was a philanderer in the worst way. His sexual appetite mirrored what the males in the Greek society apparently felt.

As a look at the ancient Greek religion, Clash of the Gods provides a starting point for the discussion, not the entire conversation. And, really, it starts to feel like Dallas or another 1980s prime time soap after awhile, with one god changing his form to seduce any woman who caught his fancy, a jilted wife, a brother scorned, a paranoid father and so on. Sounds like the storyline in one episode of Dallas, if you ask me.

The Greeks, it should be noted, had wonderfully creative imaginations. It was never enough for them to simply see lightning and say,"A god is punishing the world." No, they had to go farther and give that god a name, a personality, a family, epic battles, side quests and all other assorted trappings of reality. In the ancient world, where there was no mechanized technology to harvest the crops or light a room at night, didn't these people have anything else to do with their time? Granted, creating a story around an event helped assuage the fear surrounding a volcanic eruption or a typhoon, but, at some point, they began to overindulge in the god fantasies.

The Minotaur, for example, a half bull, half man being eventually slain by Theseus, supposedly personified the hidden animal nature of human beings. Or maybe, just maybe, it was a story parents told their children to steer them away from even thinking of engaging in bestiality and not some grand declaration about the repressed Greek society.

The more educational-and less entertaining-story for these episodes to take would have been showcasing the step-by-step process historians took to uncover all this information. This is History, after all. What do the various pictographs and etchings signify? Instead of simply showing a sculpture of Hercules battling the Hydra in motion comic fashion (more on that in a minute), put the entire progression of the Hercules story on the screen, from start to finish and explain it all in detail. This isn't to say what's on the screen isn't mostly entertaining and somewhat educational: it is, on both counts, yet the entertainment portion seems to override everything else.

It's in the presentation, too, which has a flair for the dramatic and blood splattering over the screen. Each of the subjects are shrouded in darkness more often than not as the ominous narrator recounts the story. Faces are half-obscured in shadow while the default piercing blue eyes stand out against the background. Dramatic and over the top...but also eye catching for the viewer passing by the program on basic cable.

Noe, about that motion comic I mentioned a moment ago. The video is broken down into three major categories: present day interviews, reenactments and pieces of a still picture moving, seemingly coming to life. Some audiences may think this is a sign of cheap CGI or the lack of imagination on the part of the producers. In reality, it's neither. The real inspiration, I suspect, is keeping entirely with the time period being discussed. Clash of the Gods tries to be a verbal myth coupled with images instead of a full-fledged modern movie. After Medusa turns from virgin priestess to snake-haired Gorgan, a handful of snakes begin to move in rock carvings, as an example. Hercules battles the Hydra as each head moves as a rigid figure instead of flowing as a real creature would. It's an inspired choice, to be sure, and another one which aims to create the illusion of looking at a picture book.

The question, in the long run, is this: does Clash of the Gods do what it sets out to do? Yes, to an extent. First and foremost, this is a history lesson for viewers who don't want to crack open a book. It's entertaining, fairly violent, dynamic looking and, dare I say it, usually compelling. When the episode about the Minotaur melds into the story of Theseus or Medusa refocuses on Perseus, the series finds its footing, continuing to morph it's story almost as if it was being handed down from one generation to another in the grandest verbal tradition. Where it fails, at times spectacularly, is in the pure kitsch factor. The material can be so over the top with the dramatic lighting and pained grimaces on everyone's faces, there's a temptation not to take it seriously. This is mostly competently done pop history for the television crowd, nothing more.

The ten episodes of the series are split onto two discs with "Zeus," "Hercules," "Hades," "The Minotaur" and "Medusa" on the first platter and "Odysseus: Curse of the Sea," "Odysseus: Warrior's Revenge," "Beowulf," "Tolkein's Monsters" and "Thor" on the second.

THE LOOK
There's nothing negative to report on the video side of the two-disc set. It's as if the producers intentionally made all ten episodes to resemble the green screen look of 300 with a grainy, almost lifeless appearance to the recreation material. Colors throughout are appropriately desaturated to convey an old world feeling while not drawing attention to any single visual aspect of the stories. Of note are the striking eyes of the Greek gods and demigods: fluorescent blue combined with deep black in a decidedly non-human pattern. Blacks and other dark colors turn out to be well done with no obvious issues. Current interviews look the most polished with the greatest amount of color popping off the screen; some footage is clearly from the archive and turns out to be soft or otherwise aged.

The production intentionally puts a film between the viewer and the action. The best description for it would be looking at the action on a piece of old parchment paper. Surface issues, like worn areas, are evident throughout. It's a stylistic choice, to be sure, and one that speaks to the source material. Is it entirely successful? Some audiences will think it's a defect in the disc while others may not understand why it's there.

THE SOUND
The sole audio track available on the set is an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mix (English subtitles are included). I can't condemn the track on technical grounds since the two speakers come alive from the very start of the production. Dialogue is always crystal clear without distraction. The track is also well balanced, providing clear delineation between the narrator and sound effects/score. It's a powerful mix that could only be made better with the use of a full 5.1 mix.

All of the segments make use of gratuitous action sequences where the score "goes deep" to provide extra emphasis on a certain point or to underscore the material. Imagine those moments pumped through a subwoofer with a full range of bass acoustics to play off of. Similarly, imagine the screams of the many-headed Hydra coming from every available speaker, successfully simulating what Hercules must have heard during his battle. The epic clash of the gods showcased in the first episode would have also benefited from an enhanced track. Does this mean Clash of the Gods is deficient? Not at all. This is merely what might have been.

THE STUFF
Clash of the Gods comes packed in a standard, two-disc Blu-ray case without an insert. The first disc is affixed to the inside front cover while the second is in normal position on the inside back cover. Each episode is broken down into six chapters, available through the main menu after selecting a particular installment. A Play All option is also included. Otherwise, there are no extras.