MovieChat Forums > Marco Polo (2014) Discussion > Show is SO hard to follow! Can't tell ac...

Show is SO hard to follow! Can't tell actors apart, smh... Sorry.


This is probably going to sound effed up, and it's not my intention... But does anyone else find this show hard as hell to follow because they can't tell the actors apart??? I seriously feel like a bad person for saying this but I honestly don't know who tf is who most of the time... Plus it doesn't help that none of the characters have familiar or english style names, making them all harder to remember or distinguish. They might as well all be named after the sound Charlie Brown's teacher makes, because that's more or less what I hear when a person's name is mentioned. There are 3 women (i think), who i literally still am not sure which is which. This leads me to continually getting each one of their storylines crossed, which effs up the ENTIRE experience! Add to that my COMPLETE unfamiliarity with Asian history and the fact that I don't know and can't figure out when the show is in Mongolia and when they're in China OR who tf even IS Mongolian or Chinese and we just have a giant cluster$#*%... I'm only on episode 6 right now but i'm seriously about to give up on this ish if it doesn't start making sense soon.

...That being said, I do applaud Netflix for picking this show up and taking a chance after Starz passed on it. It really seems like it wants to be quality program, and it's wonderful to see Asian and Indian actors getting some "playing time." My problem figuring this ish out is likely a symptom of a much LARGER one in that we as americans don't see enough people of color on television making it hard for those of us in middle america, where there is NO diversity, to distinguish the fine distinctions of individuals faces who don't hold the all too regular European phenotype.

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Dude, not to be a dick but don't say "we Americans" like you're speaking for all of us. I have no problem distinguishing who's who. honestly I don't see how you're having such a hard time. almost every character has distinctive facial hair and just hair in general. I'm from NY, not NYC, just NY and I see plenty of diversity. In the real world and on TV so I'm not really sure what your problem is.

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New York state is WAY more diverse that states in middle america man. There are less than 1% Asian americans where I live. I am not the only person whose reality reflects this.

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I can remember all of the faces and the names - only issue I have had a few times is knowing if a character was Chinese or Mongolian.
(I'm from Illinois)
My husband is from the Middle East and he has a much harder time distinguishing faces and remembering/pronouncing names) according to him, there are almost no Asian people where he grew up and they don't know a lot about Asian culture. Growing up, He did know who Bruce Lee was, However.

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I will admit I've had to rewind the show on several occasions to figure out who was who and what was going on. I think this show has a certain subtlety to it and you really have to pay attention when you watch it. Stick with it, it's worth it.

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Nah! not eff up man! you do have a point but with all that being said I do enjoy the series immensely. I'm in the Midwest myself but for the most part I have no problem identifying 99% of the characters.

You just gotta pay attention! As to their names sure they may not have your typical western sounding convention but how hard is it to remember kaidu, chabi, ackmad, kublai, jingim or mei lin?

My advice if you so choose to take is to identify an actor based on certain physical traits or mannerisms, then it's easier to identify.

Some are obvious! I mean even if you have never ever seen an Asian person in person, surely you can tell the difference between say Kublai and his son, the monk and Kaidu or even between Chabi (Kublai's wife) and the Blue Princess etc. Not only do they look different physically their character arc in the story line is completely different.

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I'm glad you're giving the show a chance. I would recommend turning on the captions if you haven't already. As far as I know, every Netflix show has captions available. It helps me get all the dialogue and plot points.

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the dudes are all distinctive, but some of the women look similar, the names are difficult for english native people, one of the reason fantasy has limited viewers in my opinion. GRRM notices this and goes with names like dany, jon, ed

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It wouldn't matter if you couldn't tell any of the characters apart. That doesn't make you racist, it just means you have trouble picking up distinctions. It's a visual problem.

I think I had some trouble when I first started the show, but I don't remember for sure.

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I only struggle with the ladies.

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In this season especially I had also problems distinguish the different characters from each other, especially the Asians. And no it's not a racist thing, it was just hard to keep up with the continuous shifts between short scenes that had very similar looking people. Especially the women. Perhaps it was due to bad writing, IDK.

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The same criticism could be levelled at Game of Thrones





Too late to die Young

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