After the debacle that was Exodus of Gods and Kings, I could only imagine how much mileage I was destined to get from Tut and while it wasn’t a spectacle, it was at least by the book, interesting but still fell short. Let’s get the real talk out of the way now. Anyone planning on watching this show as Spike TV will rerun it this weekend, watch it purely for entertainment purposes. Most of us knowing Tutankhamen’s history especially with what has been revealed recently know that he wasn’t really much of a warrior king. He was, to a point, deformed due to the rampant inbreeding and he may have not been as fair skinned as he is portrayed on the show. But let’s be real, there was a bit more diversity in the cast than there was in Exodus. Ironically, 2 cast members (Ben Kingsley and Alexander Siddig) made their way here as well. (I guess Naveen Andrews, Oded Fehr, Yesmine Al Massri or so many others weren’t available.) Yes, I am sure that many debates will rage yet again about the lack of people of color in these types of movies and TV shows but at least there was somewhat more conscious effort here. But that is a discussion for another time.

What I can say however, is that in the years that we have had many period pieces including Rome, Vikings, Spartacus and many others, I have wondered if anyone would ever get around to doing one in regards to Egypt. And now that Tut has come and gone, while parts of me are satisfied that Spike TV, out of all others, answered the call, there was still a lot lacking.

In this highly fictionalized account, Tutankhamen (played by Caprica’s Avan Jogia) has just come into power and everyone is in his ear trying to tell him which way to direct the kingdom. There is his sister – wife Ankhesenamun (Sybilla Deen) who wants to solidify his kingdom by having his heir, Kingsley’s Ay who, while his ambition is great, he tries his best to steer Tut in the right direction without betraying him. Then there is Nonso Anozie as Horemheb who sees himself as the servant of Egypt and not its king as well as so many others.

The entire series was a nearly by the books drama of love, betrayal and behind the scenes backstabbing. While it wasn’t a complete throwaway of a story, it’s not too compelling of a story to remember. The first part of the series gives us Tut the unsure king. New to his power, he is tested by all of those in his court who wish to usurp him. He leads them into battle fails and disappears and presumed dead. The 2^nd part is Tut, the missing and returned. He comes back into power, punishes those who seek to cast him aside but o yeah! There is another woman carrying his child. Cue the soap opera intrigue as everyone conspired to have him ousted and the heathen woman killed. The final third of the miniseries focuses on Tut the warrior and his downfall.

In my opinion, it was mercifully short as I couldn’t see this cast trying to carry this on for a full season. Anyone into period pieces and Game of Thrones type shenanigans would have gotten a nice dose of political intrigue, sex and lies, and brutality. Not that it was boring but still it wasn’t too much for it to do and some of the characters fell flat.   I was hoping for more ruthlessness from Ay and Horemheb in their quest for power but…it never came.   Although Siddig’s Amun had the least amount of screen time, he had the most going on in his scheming and when he is finally dealt with, I was left wondering, where did all of his plotting come from since we saw so little from him?

If nothing else, the sets were impressive for this to be not only on television but to be on Spike. I liked the costumes and the color and some of the grandeur that we rarely see from those ancent times 3000 years ago.

But, the worst part of Tut is how many times the script writers were busy winking and nodding at how Tut will be erased and gone from history with of course knowing that right now he is one of the most known kings of Egypt.

I give the actors some credit in polishing the turd of a script handed to them but the execution of this show was stretching way too thin. I am thankful that at least no one claimed to be historically accurate because it’s far from it. There was some attempt to make Tut larger than life but with the by the books script, that just didn’t happen.  I cannot emphasize enough that mercifully this was a miniseries that only needed 3 shows to prove that Hollywood still has a long way to go to get historical dramas of people in Africa right and if nothing else, entertaining.

2 Crook and Flails out of 5