Episode One: The Hanged Man
Now that Spartacus has ended, Starz brings forth a new series, one set in the days of the Italian Renaissance. Loosely based on the life of Mona Lisa artist Leonardo da Vinci, the first episode of Da Vinci’s Demons gives us a flying machine, a masquerade, an evil Pope, a spy, the Medici family, and a duke’s murder in the aisle of the church.
Not a bad start.
Leonardo is still young in this tale, and he’s not quite the famed artist we know now. But he’s energetic, confident and good-looking, and he knows how to charm the ladies and potential patrons. However, there’s some secret locked away inside of him. Something that he buried long ago, but it’s easy to guess the time will come when what’s hidden will no longer remain so.
I loved how the episode tried to show how da Vinci sees the world, using slow motion shots as he observes a bird and sketches in his journal. His mind is a busy one, and it’s as if part of him is in another realm of reality.
But his ambitions have placed him under the notice of the powerful in Florence. Lorenzo Medici agrees to buy his designs for weapons, and we discover that there are those who aren’t thrilled by this. Now he’s on their hit list. His own father doesn’t even like him, beating him and calling him a bastard.
He does have loyal friends, though, and they are delighted when he designs the dove equivalent of Bubo the Owl. It flies around just before the masquerade begins, delighting the spectators.
Overall, an encouraging start to the series, but it felt very busy. Quite a lot going on in nearly every scene, but I may have only felt this way since I had just watched the finale of Spartacus. It was a very emotional episode and I was still processing it.
And I do really like da Vinci. He’s personable–someone you would probably love to hang out with, though it seems likely you would run into mischief with him.
I’m curious to see how future episodes unravel. Worth watching.