The Making of a God

[system1988]

The more i watch this ,the more i miss the indian film/series ''Porus'' (of which they copied a scene )

[Sweetmemory41]

I sort of enjoyed it given my expectations, meaning that the ‘expectations-performance gap’ was small for me. (I am an amateur, someone who loves the history of Alexander, not an Alexander historian.)

While I did not particularly care for the brooding Alexander, I thought that the actor did a decent job with the material that he was given. (I think it would be rather difficult to find an actor who has Alexander’s immense charismatic appeal.)

The show’s Hephaestion was a bit too tame for me. While his portrayal as the BFF, counselor, and diplomat was fairly good, I can’t see the show’s Hephaestion torturing Philotas, crossing swords with Craterus, or fighting with Eumenes. However, I did see Alexander’s bond with him.

The budget for the show seemed rather modest as it had a number of compromises with respect to the sets, wardrobes, battle scenes, and characters.

I missed Alexander’s companions like Perdiccas and Cleitus.

While I am not a huge fan of the docudrama format, it worked fairly well in this case, I thought. Loved the talking heads. (I loved listening to experts and seeing archeological discoveries.) Dr. Lloyd Lewellyn Jones’ way of sanitizing history was rather humorous. (For example, instead of introducing Alexandros of Epirus as Cleopatra’s uncle or Olympias’ brother, he said that he was a neighboring warlord.)

Overall, I thought it was worth my time. I would give it a 7.6/10, a grade of a solid ‘C’ in an undergrad class in the U.S., with the understanding that it is not only history (for that I have read all the primary sources (translated) in English), but also entertainment.

[mavra22]

The more i watch this ,the more i miss the indian film/series ''Porus'' (of which they copied a scene )

Which scene exactly? I'd love to know, since I have watched Porus; and just finished watching the Netflix series last night!

[delos13]

The show’s Hephaestion was a bit too tame for me. While his portrayal as the BFF, counselor, and diplomat was fairly good, I can’t see the show’s Hephaestion torturing Philotas, crossing swords with Craterus, or fighting with Eumenes.

I have the same opinion. Hephaistion appears weak-willed and practically gutless. Not much supportive of Alexander's either. There is a scene (I think it is 2nd episode) where Parmenion asks Hephaistion to go to Alexander and convince him to change his opinion, and Hephaistion just does that.

[system1988]

mavra 22 :This is the scene in the second episode,where Alexander and his mother are in the desert with a tree in the background.In the series ''Porus'', this scene is an entire episode that lasts a long time,here a little

[mavra22]

mavra 22 :This is the scene in the second episode,where Alexander and his mother are in the desert with a tree in the background.In the series ''Porus'', this scene is an entire episode that lasts a long time,here a little

Oh yes, I remember that part! It was something along the lines of a 'vision quest', or a journey into one's own subconscious (at least that's the idea I got from it). Glad that you pointed it out

[Sweetmemory41]

The show’s Hephaestion was a bit too tame for me. While his portrayal as the BFF, counselor, and diplomat was fairly good, I can’t see the show’s Hephaestion torturing Philotas, crossing swords with Craterus, or fighting with Eumenes.

I have the same opinion. Hephaistion appears weak-willed and practically gutless. Not much supportive of Alexander's either. There is a scene (I think it is 2nd episode) where Parmenion asks Hephaistion to go to Alexander and convince him to change his opinion, and Hephaistion just does that.

One of the actors in Netflix’s Alexander indicated that the Hephaestion was the ‘heart and soul’ of the show. I took this to mean that Hephaestion’s character was deliberately portrayed ‘as soft’ to make Alexander appear more human.