Directors: Francis Lawrence
Writers: Steven Knight
Cast: Jason Momoa, Sylvia Hoeks, Hera Hilmar, Christian Camargo, Yadira Guevara-Prip, Alfre Woodard

Episode 01×01: ‘Godflame’ Air Date: 01/11/19
See is currently available to stream on Apple TV+, with the first three episodes available.

When the trailer for the Apple TV+ original See released it was hard not to be super impressed by the cinematography and costume design. The show visually, like all the Apple TV+ programs, has a lot of money behind it and after watching the premiere of the series I can confirm See does look gorgeous. It’s the shows’ story and the world that is either going to lose you very fast however and as much as See may wish to be Apple’s replacement for Game of Thrones fans, it will never have that appeal. 

For a first episode, See moves fast and I appreciate it doesn’t mess about. Over the course of an hour, there is tones of exposition, introductions to the key players, a fantastic fight scene and then it all ends with what could have been a season finale moment. 

Set in a future where humans have lost the ability to, you guessed it, see, clans of the remainder of mankind have seemingly set-up homes in certain sections of America. The loss of vision is so many centuries long-lost that to even speak of the ability to see is considered blasphemous. 

See begins with a birth, a battle, bloodshed and then a retreat. Maghra (Icelandic actress Hera Hilmar) is giving birth in a cave, while her husband, Baba Voss (Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa) leads a party of warriors to meet an oncoming group approaching their village. Baba Voss’s warriors stop and are able to smell the enemies intentions and listen to track their numbers and pick-up they have horses and dogs. It’s apparent that with the loss of sight, mankind has adapted its other senses greatly, although not to the level of superhero Daredevil. A fight soon breaks out between Voss’s people and the enemies which is the best part of the episode by far. It’s violent and shot well with the choreography making sure that Momoa, as big a person as he is, is moving and reacting somewhat realistically using his hearing as his main fighting strength. Again, he’s not Daredevil, but he is shown, as are other fighters, that they can sense a weapon incoming as it makes a sound swinging through the air and an enemies location is given away as they brush a plant in the ground. 

When the battle is over Baba Voss retreats his people back to the village and with more of the army still on their way, the village discusses what to do next before attempting to make a swift exit.

Although able to produce an enthraling, bloody and interesting fight, the sense of fear and dread that should have been building as the clock ticks on their escape is non-existant. The episode is on a clock itself to quickly reach the end-point and it’s unable to spend time on building tension when needed in an important scene.