If you’re desperately seeking a Game of Thrones fix while enduring the long wait for the HBO fantasy epic’s 2019 return, you could do a lot worse than Britannia. The new historical drama from Amazon Studios and Sky has much in common with the world of Westeros, even though it’s set in our own world, tracing the conflicts between the native Celts and the invading Romans in 43 AD. But while Britannia is clearly inspired by Game of Thrones—and probably wouldn’t exist without that show’s success—Britannia still feels very much like its own beast. A beast filled with treachery, terrifying druids, and a whole mess of hallucinogens.
Britannia plants its flag early on, and that flag has “freak” emblazoned boldly across it. Within the first few minutes of Britannia, you’ll see the British Office’s Mackenzie Crook appear as the most unsettling druid you’d ever care to meet, watch a man dive off a cliff and into a nightmare dreamscape fueled by every psychotropic plant he could find, and then discover that this period drama has chosen as its theme song the trippy 1968 Donovan joint “Hurdy Gurdy Man.” And, for some inexplicable reason, it works.
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