Sinbad: Episode 1 Review

Does Sky1's new fantasy drama make a good first impression?
I hate origins stories, sometimes. The Amazing Spider-Man did a great job of setting up a 'new' entertainment franchise last week, but 99% of the time, it always seems dull for writers to have to try and set up the first season of a TV show in their premiere episode, as they don't have a huge chance to engage with their series' main plot arcs. In this respect, Sinbad suffers a little from uneasy pacing, whereby you'll struggle to tell what direction Episode 1 is taking on multiple occassions. The basic storyline revolves around the titular Arabic hero being caught up in a kingdom-wide conspiracy, as a devious witch manipulates random events to have the man cast out into the seas. At first, this seems like a dull 'beggar-turns-action hero' storyline that will take a similar vein of plot to the likes of Aladdin and other Arabian legends, but to credit the writers, after around 15-20 minutes of boring background exposition, we move into a few unexpected narrative twists that really do appear to shake things up for the overarching season arc. Anyone unfamiliar with the legends of Sinbad will get a kick out of the later surprises for sure as I did, and it will hopefully provide enough of a spin on the norm for fans of the legends to get some much-needed nostalgia and surprises too. The cast of the opener are all strong, though perhaps not given enough time just yet to fully flourish in their roles, something which I hope is afforded to them in the other eleven one-hour instalments. By the time we reach the episode's climax, the direction of this first season of Sinbad feels uncertain to say the least. Yet given the strength of the action setpieces and some of the intriguing arc threads that are laid down even here, I for one am planning to stick around to see what comes next, and with any luck the viewers who join me won't be disappointed in weeks to come!
3.5/5