[troutman]

Chief of War looks good on Apple. Episode 1 was interesting. Four Hawaiian kingdoms in conflict, and the arrival of white people. Very violent.

I have always been fascinated how the Polynesians navigated the vast Pacific, but that is not part of this story. How they bravely settled the Pacific is as remarkable as humans landing on the moon.

89% Fresh:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/chief_of_war/s01

https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...ew-jason-momoa

A slow-paced, fact-based period drama of war and love in precolonial Hawai’i, “Chief of War,” premiering Friday on Apple TV+, presents co-creator and star Jason Momoa as the late-18th century warrior Ka’iana in a story set at the intersection of the island kingdoms and the arrival of European colonists. It’s clearly a passion project, and like many passion projects, it can go overboard at times, grow overstuffed, not to say oversolemn — though solemnity, to be sure, is appropriate to the history. But the passion shows through, and the stuff is interesting — nothing you see everyday, for sure.

A comparison to “Shogun” is as good as inevitable, given the subtitled dialogue — most of the series is performed in Hawaiian — the encounters with outsiders, the ambitious monarchs and the warring factions. In the latter respects, the series also resembles “Game of Thrones,” where Momoa spent two seasons as chieftain Khal Drogo. And its opening might make you think of “The Lord of the Rings,” as a woman’s voice sets the story (a prophesied king will unite the endless, ending “a cycle of endless war”), introducing the island kingdoms of Kaua’i, Hawai’i, Maui and O’ahu, “separated by cunning chiefs and powerful gods.”