Stream It Or Skip It?
Eyes Of Wakanda is a four-episode animated anthology series that extends the Black Panther universe. The stories feature Wakandan warriors who go undercover in order to retrieve Vibranium artifacts and bring them back home.
Opening Shot: “CRETE 1260 BC”. Two lookout guards spot an armada of ships coming over the horizon. The ships have lion heads on their bows.
The Gist: As the warriors on those ships start to invade the port, a civilian named Noni (Winnie Harlow) manages to defend and infiltrate. She’s ordered to become a soldier of “The Lion” (Cress Williams), and embrace her new home, but she says “I have no master, and I already have a home.”
In Wakanda six weeks earlier, Noni is summoned by Akeya (Patricia Belcher), head of the Dora Milaje. She used to be among the royal guards, but Akeya exiled her because she was so reluctant to follow orders. But she is the only person who can find The Lion, a former guard, and retrieve the items he stole, which he could use to mount a military rival to Wakanda. She also offers the element of surprise, since The Lion did not train her like he did the others Akeya sent to defeat him. If she succeeds, she’ll be allowed back into the Dora Milaje.
Once Noni reaches The Lion, he tries to convince her that she’s being lied to by the leaders of Wakanda, who have a network of “war dogs” around the world to do their bidding in secret. “There is a risk when they send people like you and me out into the world. We see it for what it is,” he tells her. But Noni doesn’t see The Lion as someone that offers freedom, else he wouldn’t need to have people who work for him chained up and held captive.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Eyes Of Wakanda is part of the Black Panther universe.
Our Take: The idea of Eyes Of Wakanda, developed by Ryan Coogler, with Todd Harris as the showrunner, is that the Hatut Zaraze, those aforementioned War Dogs, will go undercover to retrieve Vibranium artifacts, with each of the four episodes taking place during a different historical period. The second episode, for instance, takes places during the Trojan war, and Memnon (Larry Herron), undercover as a confidant of Achilles (Adam Gold), is after a Vibranium necklace that is inside the walls of the city of Troy.
Each episode has lots of action sequences, and the detailed animation style gives the episodes’ directors, Harris and John Fang, the freedom to take fight sequences in a lot of different directions. It’s certainly not a kid’s show, as there is violence, blood and death, as you might expect during historic battles.
What each episode is trying to impart, though, is why each of these War Dogs are so loyal to Wakanda and why they’re willing to sacrifice everything to protect their home. Noni sees the brand of freedom that The Lion offers, and decides whether she should stay loyal. Memnon has forged a close friendship with Achilles, but knows that his mission comes first.
They are certainly worthy stories where the characters face moral dilemmas, but we wish they were a little less serious. Sure, the entire Black Panther franchise is pretty damn serious, but there is so much intensity and emotional darkness in these episodes that they become heavy watches, even though they’re only about 30 minutes each. Perhaps as the series goes along, and if it’s picked up for a second season, we’ll see a couple of more perspectives and angles involving loyalty to Wakanda, maybe even one that makes us chuckle a little bit.
Sex and Skin: None; the show is rated TV-14, so it’s not for kids, but that’s more for violence than anything else.
Parting Shot: Noni tells Akeya that she no longer wants to be in the Dora Milaje; Akeya is happy about that because she wants Noni to be in the War Dogs.
Sleeper Star: The animators do a good job of making Eyes Of Wakanda look like the rest of the Black Panther universe but making sure people don’t forget that it’s an animated series.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Eyes Of Wakanda can definitely drag at times, but the lively action sequences, well-done animation, and the moral dilemmas faced by the stories’ antagonists make the anthology worth watching.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
Credit to Nypost AND Peoples
