- Title: Sinbad
- tv.com: link
Created by British Broadcasting’s Sky1 in an attempt to sell the character of Sinbad as a cool new family adventure, Sinbad lasted only a single season. The focus of the twelve episodes was the journey of Sinbad (Elliot Knight) from cursed small time thief into high seas adventurer with a motley crew of friends at his command (Marama Corlett, Elliot Cowan, Dimitri Leonidas, Estella Daniels, Junix Inocian) while also fleeing from the witch Taryn (Orla Brady) and Lord Akbari (Naveen Andrews) who blamed the thief for the death of his son.
Over the course of the season Sinbad and his friends would battle witches, secret sects, various monsters, Sirens, Death itself, water spirits, and even get lost for a time in an otherworldly gambling den.
The production of the show often didn’t measure up to the vision of the scripts (several episodes looked hastily scraped together most notably “Queen of the Water Thieves“).
The cast seems also haphazardly put together as the series often didn’t know quite what to do with such a big supporting cast for selfish lead who they could never quite properly sell. At it’s best Sinbad is fantasy frolic and a curiosity fans of the character may wish to explore, but at it’s worst the show borders on being laughably bad. The truth about what Sinbad was lies somewhere in the middle, but as to what it might have become given longer to find its sea legs… Well, I guess we’ll never know.
The three-disc collection includes all twelve episodes from the show’s first (and only) season. Also included are a couple of short behind-the-scenes featturettes on the show, character, and costumes of the series.
[BBC Home Entertainment, DVD $29.98 / Blu-ray $34.98]