Britannia Season 1 came out in 2018, and it stars Kelly Reilly and Eleanor Worthinton Cox. It follows the Celtic tribes as they deal with the second Roman invasion of Britain. Overall, Britannia has a lot of potential. It’s got a great setting, some interesting spiritual elements, and an excellent villain. However, it is held back at times by a bit of an identity crisis, and some very hit or miss characters.

Britannia follows Cait, a Celtic peasant forced on the run after The Romans slaughter her family. Along the way she has encounters with various druids and tribal queens, and eventually finds out she is the child of a prophecy concerning the arrival of the Romans.

My absolute favorite aspect of Britannia is it’s villain, Aulus Plautius, or the Roman general who led the second invasion or Britannia. David Morrissey is an incredibly underrated actor, and he’s amazing in this. He’s incredibly charismatic, yet also unpredictable and even scary at times. He also clearly inspires morale in his men throughout the show, and seems like an incredibly formidable threat. Beyond Aulus, there are a handful of other memorable characters. There’s Divis, an insane outcast Druid who has the niche ability to hypnotize people using pebbles, and Kerra, the defiant newly elected queen of the Cantii tribe, and Veran, the ancient lead Druid. Speaking of Druids, a really cool aspect about this show is how it integrates the Celtic religion into the plot (albeit not terribly realistically but still.) some characters can also use magic, and it makes for some hilarious moments.

Britannia is not without it’s flaws however. A big problem with this film is that it seems to have a sort of identity crisis. It can’t make up it’s mind wether it’s trying to be a zany historical drama or a brutally serious one. It’s a bit jarring at times and it makes this show feel a little weird. Thankfully however, the trailers for the second season seem to be hinting at more humor in the second season. Additionally, a lot of the characters in Britannia are poorly written. They’re boring and I didn’t even know the names of some of the characters until the last episode. Also, why is the Roman armor leather!? Lorica Segmentata armor was very cheap to make, and it makes no sense to have it made out of leather.

Overall, Britannia displays a lot of potential, and I’m excited for season 2 this October, however, season 1, at least in my opinion, doesn’t live up to other similar shows’ first seasons like Vikings or The Last Kingdom.