Within the first-season finale of the brand new Apple drama Chief of Conflict, two rival clans put together to do battle on the base of an lively volcano on the island of Hawai’i. As lava flows and steam rises within the background, a consultant of every group steps ahead to problem the opposite, hurling elaborate insults (in subtitled Hawaiian) at their opponent. One, as an illustration, calls the opposite “lowborn scum of the Earth” and “the epitome of cowardice.” They’re, in impact, slicing wrestling promos, in what’s in the mean time probably the most harmful spots on the planet, proper earlier than they intend to begin killing anybody of their path utilizing spears, golf equipment, and even their naked palms if needed.
It’s an unbelievable spectacle, of the kind {that a} present like Chief of Conflict — a historic epic in regards to the late-18th-century battle to unify the islands, with the specter of Western colonization looming — all however guarantees from its opening hour. However it solely comes late within the ninth episode of a collection with sluggish pacing, a principally flat assortment of characters, and a compulsion to restate the identical handful of concepts repeatedly. It’s attempting to be one thing akin to a Hawaiian model of Shōgun, splitting its time between exploring the tradition of the feuding island factions and permitting star Jason Momoa’s Maui-born warrior Kaʻiana to go full Khal Drogo on his enemies. However it primarily involves life within the latter mode.
Momoa co-created the collection with Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett, and so they populate it with important historic figures like Ka’iana, Maui king Kahekili (Temuera Morrison), Hawaiian king Keōua (Cliff Curtis), and Keōua’s rival Kamehameha (Kaina Makua), who in actual life finally turned the ruler who introduced the islands collectively. It’s an intriguing setup, particularly since — as was the case manner again when on Recreation of Thrones, the place everybody saved arguing over who would rule Westeros, all of the whereas ignoring the bigger hazard posed by the White Walkers — all these feuding would-be kings are oblivious to the existential menace of white sailors who see the islands as a paradise to be seized from its primitive leaders.
Kaina Makua and Luciane Buchanan in Chief of Conflict.
Nicola Dove/Apple TV+
However Momoa and Sibbett maintain hitting the identical character beats all through these 9 episodes. Kahekili is a sadist who’s gone mad with power-lust, and his son Kupule (Brandon Finn) can’t resolve if, or how, to intervene as his father tortures and slaughters anybody who stands in his manner. Keōua is blinded by wounded satisfaction over his late father’s determination to bequeath their sacred God of Conflict image to Kamehameha. Kamehameha in flip is reluctant to resort to violence until introduced with overwhelming proof by an exasperated Ka’iana. And Kamehameha’s spouse Ka’ahumanu (Luciane Buchanan) struggles to make her wise voice heard in a male-dominated society that expects her to quietly make infants for her husband.
Most of those conflicts are attention-grabbing on paper, and performed by charismatic actors like Momoa, Morrison, and Curtis. However Chief of Conflict has little to say about them past their primary setup. And Kamehameha is introduced as a particularly flat and passive character who exists primarily to make Ka’iana and Ka’ahumanu look smarter than him. (Typically, when a lead actor can also be co-creator and government producer, they’ll exit of their solution to make their characters appear higher than everybody else.)
In order that leaves the present’s motion sequences to hold issues. Once they come, they’re often wonderful. The collection opens with Ka’iana and his household — spouse Kupuohi (Te Ao o Hinepehinga), her sister Heke (Mainei Kinimaka), and his brothers Nahi (Siua Ikale’o) and Namake (Te Kohe Tuhaka) — on a fishing expedition collectively, the place a loincloth-clad Ka’iana lassos a shark. The periodic battle scenes that comply with are much more thrilling, significantly that volcano struggle within the finale. However the speaking scenes — principally in Hawaiian, although a bit extra in English in later episodes, after one character spends time touring on a service provider vessel, whereas British sailor John Younger (Benjamin Hoetjes) will get stranded on Hawai’i and offers classes to Kamehameha’s folks — are each extra frequent and fewer compelling.
When Ka’iana and Ka’ahumanu are debating the right way to cope with Kamehameha’s pacifist leanings, Ka’iana insists that discuss will get them nowhere, and that “it will finish in blood.” His thesis is similar because the present’s, for good and for in poor health.
The primary two episodes of Chief of Conflict start streaming Aug. 1 on Apple TV+, with extra episodes releasing weekly. I’ve seen all 9 episodes.
