With Sons of Anarchy wrapped last year, creator Kurt Sutter moved on to a much different time and place for his next project. Set in Whales in the 14th century, Wilkin Brattle is a knight in King Edward III service. Barely surviving through a war time attack, he vows a more honest, less bloody life. A few years later he finds himself swinging a blad again in the name of rebellion. A divine messenger vists him, putting him on a ritous path for his people as an imposter, a bastard executioner.

Kurt Sutter is the sole reason I checked out this show. Promos seemed alright, I typically like this time period and I have a good amount of faith put into whatever Sutter does. The premiere was 2 episodes and it took about an hour for the show to really start. One of the slowest and arjuest pilots I’ve ever sat through, it took me 3 sittings to get through it all. Half the time I was wondering where the show was going and hoping it would just hurry up and get on with it. It’s really the last moments of the first episode where things start coming together.

Second episode is quite a bit better. The title of the show is explained, your familiar with many of the characters and the pace is much better. There’s a healthy mix of love, politics and faith at work that’s just starting to show, so there should be much more than people getting stabbed to death. The cast is really good  (impressed with Katey Sagal, her role demands a lot to not be a disaster) and the production values are great too. The action scenes so far have been shot better than SOA.

While it was a rough start, I think I’m glad I stuck with it and I want to know where it goes from here. Seems to be the ideal DVR show.