Troy: Fall of a City episode 1 review: It's no Game of Thrones, but so what?

A fast and funny thriller hidden inside a historical epic.

Troy: Fall of a City
BBC/Wild Mercury Productions

It's difficult for virtually any new TV show these days to avoid comparisons with the behemoth that is Game of Thrones. Star Trek: Discovery? Game of Thrones in space. Britannia? Game of Thrones on mind-altering drugs.

But Troy: Fall of a City is going to find it harder than most. A historical drama intertwined with fantasy elements, swords and sandals, based on a sprawling epic, with sex and nudity within the first five minutes. And Joseph Mawle, of course.

Yes, Troy shares many elements with HBO's superlative series, but those easy-win comparisons aside, the BBC and Netflix's new show is very much its own beast.

Wild Mercury ProductionsBBC

Based on Homer's epic poem The Iliad, Troy: Fall of a City chronicles – as you might expect – the ten-year siege of the ancient city of Troy, which was sparked when the Trojan prince Paris (Louis Hunter) stole away with Helen (Bella Dayne), the wife of neighbouring king Menelaus (Jonas Armstrong).

It's a story that's as well known in historical and literary circles as it is in pop culture. Helen of Troy, Achilles and his pesky heel, the Trojan horse… these are all elements that will be familiar, and they provide a hell of a toy box for a TV series to play with.

Related: Who is everyone on Troy: Fall of a City, and how are they related?

We open on a dark night, as a Queen's troubled labour ultimately produces a baby boy, and a young girl foresees the ruin that the child will bring upon their city. Skip forward 20 years, and the boy has been raised as a humble herdsman after being stolen by wolves (or so the story would have you believe) and discovered in the woods.

Named Paris, he's a skilled horse rider and seems generally content in his simple life. When he comes across the princes of Troy training for an upcoming games, he challenges them, and finds himself brought before of the King, where his true lineage is revealed. The rest, as they say, is history. Well. Sort of...

Troy: Fall of a City takes elements from many other shows, but doesn't exactly feel like any of them. More fantasy than Rome, less violent and stylised than Spartacus, and more streamlined than Game of Thrones, this first episode focuses more on romance, as Paris finds his head turned by Helen soon-to-be-of-Troy, 'the face that launched a thousand ships'.

The production values are high and the show looks fabulous, from the costumes through to the dusty grandeur of the settings. (Cape Town, in fact.)

Wild Mercury ProductionsBBC

While there's little action in this opener, perhaps the standout scene sees Paris stumbling into a group of gods, who insist he plays a game with him: Paris must choose one of three goddesses to award a golden apple to, in return for a gift that will shape his life to come.

The fact that he chooses Aphrodite – goddess of love – is what truly sets this story in motion. It's an intriguing scene, and we can rest assured that we'll be seeing plenty more gods in the weeks to come.

Related: Yes, Achilles is black, and yes, it's a big deal

It may sound a bit bonkers in what is ostensibly a historical drama, but Troy presents it all rather matter-of-factly. Paris simply goes along with their presence, and shows no surprise whatsoever in finding himself in a glade surrounded by beings of myth and legend. As a result, the audience is encouraged to accept it as well.

And given their human form and relative mundanity, they're less imposing to the fantasy-averse than much of what transpires in Game of Thrones. (No dragons or shadow monsters here).

Also unlike Game of Thrones, Troy focuses very much on one hero (at least for this opening hour), which should make it more accessible to those who find modern series' tendency to feature sprawling ensembles a bit tiring to keep track of. (Though we've provided this handy character guide just in case.)

At the centre of the show, Louis Hunter makes a likeable lead: more party boy than prince, he brings an air of rebellious, arrogant charm to his Paris. His life in the lower echelons of society was a happy one, and so, Paris recognises and sees through much of the facade and rigidity of palace life; he knows it needn't be that way.


And thankfully, Hunter's chemistry with Bella Dayne's strong-willed Helen is palpable. It would be a disaster if the central romance that sparks the Trojan wars were unconvincing, but the pair work well together.

The show's forward momentum is also admirable. In this first episode alone, Paris goes from pauper to prince, steals the heart of a queen, and makes enemies of everyone from rival kings to his own brother, and yet we barely scratch the surface of the series' potential (most of the supporting cast barely get a look in).

What this opener does demonstrate, though, is a willing and somewhat absurd sense of humour, be it the sight of Paris mooning the princes of Troy from atop a galloping horse, or the bizarre image of an un-remarked-upon ostrich striding down a corridor behind him, the series is in no-way as po-faced as it might have been.

Troy: Fall of a City is in the enviable position of feeling both cultured and entertaining at the same time.

Whether the show can deliver on the large-scale action audiences will expect, or whether the supporting players will be strong enough to help carry the load over eight hours, remains to be seen, but this is a promising start to a series that feels perfectly placed to succeed.


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