Series / Odysseus

Odysseus is a mini-series of 12 episodes that was broadcast on Arte TV in June and July 2013.The first six episodes deal with what happened on Ithaca while Odysseus was on his journey home. The next six recount what Homer left out: the return of their king does not necessarily bring a bright future to the inhabitants of the island.

The series was shot in Portugal with a French, Italian, Portuguese and Swiss team.

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• Adaptational Villainy: Menelaus gets this.
• Animal Motifs: The symbol of Ithaca is a ram's head, shown on the soldiers' shields, the royal throne and Odysseus' sceptre.
• Battle Couple: When the suitors attack the palace, Mentor uses his swords to fend them off, while his lover Eurynome picks a spear and watches his back.
• Betty and Veronica: Nausicaa's Betty to Clea's Veronica. They both fit the colour and personality scheme.
• Bloodless Carnage: Averted; during each duel or fight, there is a lot of blood spilled on-screen. After Odysseus, Mentor and Telemachus kill Penelope's suitors, servants are seen washing the stains off the floor.
• Brains and Brawn: Leocrite is clearly the brains in the group of suitors, specially compared to the brutish Antinous. He's also the brains in his couple with Liodes, though the latter is by no mean stupid.
• Bury Your Gays: Liodes, Leocrite's lover is one of the first named characters to die.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In almost every scene between Odysseus and Telemachus. Odysseus also rants against his own father Laertes who forced him to go to war, when Odysseus was less than enthusiastic about it.
• Came Back Wrong: Odysseus does not really come back from the dead, but he's definitely not the man he was when he left and even his wife wishes he had never come back.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Menelaus of Sparta, oh so much. First he arrives at Ithaca with nearly his whole fleet, supposedly to help his cousin Penelope against her unwanted suitors. Then he promises Telemachus to help him become king, only to betray him to Leocrite. When Telemachus kills Leocrite's champion Liodes in a legal duel for the throne, Menelaus quickly abandons Leocrite's cause. Then when Odysseus reveals himself, Menelaus forgets everything about his former candidates for the throne and gladly offers his support. Odysseus is no fool, and promptly kicks Menelaus out of Ithaca.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Odysseus, his family and soldiers wear red and blue clothes, jewels and uniforms. The Spartans wear white under a red cloak, and the suitors, brown clothes.
• Cool Old Guy: Laerte, Odysseus' father, is a wise and respected councillor for Queen Penelope, and always has some time for his grandson.
• Cradling Your Kill: After slashing Liodes' throat in a fight, Telemachus supports his body and lays him down rather gently.
  • Mentor holds Eurynome in his arms when he helps her to commit suicide in order to avoid torture and execution after she tried to murder Odysseus.
• Deadpan Snarker: Odysseus is fond of this trope, specially when facing Menelaus or the suitors.
• Death Equals Redemption: Invoked by Odysseus during his duel with Menelaus. He kills himself along with his opponent, atoning for his crimes and making sure he will be remembered as a great king who gave his life for his country.
• The Ditz: Helen of Sparta first appears as this, until she reveals that Menelaus gives her a daily beating as a punishment for the humiliation he felt when she fled with Prince Paris.
  • Nausicaa seems like a sweet, spoiled, not too bright girl, but soon proves she's as brave and smart as the Ithacan rulers.
• Downer Ending: At the end of the story, Homer is blind, Penelope is once again alone, with no hope of Odysseus coming back, Telemachus has lost several of his friends, his grandfather, his teacher and father figure Mentor, his wife Nausicaa and his father. And from Telemachus' actions in the very last image of the show, it's clear he's tempted by a journey of his own.
• Exact Words: Thyoscos predicts to Odysseus that his own blood will cause his death. Both believe that Telemachus will kill his father. But as it turns out, during a duel against Menelaus, Odysseus' recent injury reopens, and it's the blood loss that weakens him and causes his defeat.
• Eye Scream: Orion, one of the suitors' sons, wants revenge for his father and provokes Odysseus by killing several shepherds from Ithaca and sending their eyes to the king in a little bag.
  • During a battle, Homer receives a sword slash across the eyes that leaves him blind.
• Fake Nationality: We have Greek and Trojan characters played by French, Italian, Portuguese and Swiss actors.
• Mr. Fanservice: Many handsome guys (particularly Liodes, Telemachus and Odysseus) and a lot of shirtless scenes...
• First Girl Wins: Clea was Telemachus' first lover before his marriage to Nausicaa. After the war against Sparta and Nausicaa's death, Clea becomes queen of Ithaca.
• Gory Discretion Shot: One aversion is Homer's injury. We only see his bandaged eyes, and afterwards, there is no close-up on his rather large scar, but you can still see one of the eyes twitching periodically.
• Heroic BSoD: Odysseus has a quiet one when a guard tells him that Nausicaa has been killed by Menelaus. Also Telemachus when Laertes is murdered by a Spartan officer.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Odysseus and Mentor
• The High Queen: Penelope and Helen both play that role, with different backgrounds and results. Helen has all the symbols and outward respect from her subjects, but it's nothing more than an act. Penelope, with less pomp, actually rules.
• Historical Domain Character: YMMV on Homer being a historical character, but the show gives him and his stories a background - he was hired by Odysseus to write his adventures - and explains how he became blind - he is injured during a battle in Ithaca.
• Ho Yay: Between Leocrite and Liodes (well, they have been living together for some years). Also, between Odysseus and Orion.
• Ironic Echo: There's a scene between Telemachus and Menelaus, where the former argues that the Ithacan soldiers are outnumbered thirty to one, and they should surrender to allow a strong ruler to prepare them (and the rest of Greece) against the Persian threat. Some centuries later, Sparta will indeed face the Persian army... with exactly the same rotten odds.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Mentor is clearly in love with Penelope, but he will do all in his power to make sure she has her Happily Ever After with Odysseus.
• Jerkass Has a Point: It's jarring to hear Odysseus casually inform Telemachus that he will marry Princess Nausicaa, right after Odysseus supposedly has his son's lover Clea executed, but he's right on one point: Ithaca desperately needs powerful allies.
• Loveable Rogue: Thyoscos the oracle is a fraud who makes a lot of money out of his business, but he is shown as a very sympathetic character who genuinely cares for his queen and prince, and for the slaves who bring him food and the organs he needs for his sacrifices.
• Love Triangle: Each generation has its own: one between Odysseus, Penelope and Mentor, and another between Mentor, Penelope and Eurynome for the adults; one with Telemachus, Clea and Orion, and another with Nausicaa, Telemachus and Clea for the children.
• Made a Slave: Eurynome and her daughter Clea were born free, and were relatives to the Trojan royal family. Most of the palace servants were also free-born Trojans.
• Mood Whiplash: When Helen of Sparta visits Penelope, she is delighted to meet Eurynome, who was a good friend of her during her stay in Troy, and Clea, whom she used to babysit, and the three women have a nice little chat. Then Helen takes off her long veil, and reveals she is covered in scars and bruises left by Menelaus' beatings.
• My Beloved Smother: At the beginning of the series, Penelope looks like she's going to be this.
• Neck Snap: How Menelaus kills Nausicaa. Complete with the sound of bones creaking and breaking.
• Offing the Offspring: Odysseus considers this when he wrongly believes that Telemachus is going to kill him, due to a misunderstood oracle.
• Only Sane Man: Amongst the royal family, Laertes and Mentor. Amongst the commoners, Thyoscos the fortune teller.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Some viewers were surprised not to see marble temples or elaborate clothing styles, or that the slaves are really close to their masters, but they forget that the story is set in Archaic Greece, centuries before the glory of Athens and Alexander the Great.
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Eurynome and Mentor have this kind of relationship, much to Penelope's amusement.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Odysseus is plagued by nightmares from the sack of Troy, he suffers from vicious PTSD and is unable to trust anyone around him. He's completely aware of his fragile mental health, but he can't stop himself from going insane and hurting his family in the process.
• Shipper on Deck: Penelope is very happy - and a bit relieved - when Mentor falls in love with Eurynome, and she spends some time teasing both of them about it. She also approves of Mentor choosing to protect his lover rather than his queen, much to Mentor's embarrassment.
• Shout-Out: The last two episodes have some references to 300: the red cloaks of the Spartan soldiers, the way the blood flows during the battles... and an allusion made by the king of Sparta to a potential invasion by Persia.
• Smug Snake: Menelaus again. No redeeming qualities at all for this character...
• Taking You with Me: During a duel against Menelaus for Ithaca, Odysseus is seconds away from being killed when he grabs Menelaus' sword and impales both of them on the blade, since Menelaus was behind him, and he could not reach him otherwise. Queen Helen of Sparta is not going to mourn her husband for long.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nausicaa gives a quiet one to Menelaus, reminding him that Helen would have never fled if he had made her happy, and that power without anyone to trust or love around you is a rather sorry business. Menelaus is NOT pleased.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Telemachus desperately wants his father to be proud of him. It doesn't turn out so well.
• Xanatos Gambit: Nausicaa, of all people, pulls one on Menelaus when he invades Ithaca. She comes to his tent, offering herself in exchange of the Spartan troops leaving, but at the same time she provokes him, telling him what a sorry ruler he is. Either he accepts her offer and leaves, or he kills her and the people of Ithaca rebel. Too bad for Nausicaa that Menelaus chose the second option. But it works.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Physically, Odysseus is back in Ithaca, but his mind is still stuck somewhere between Troy and the place where his crew was slaughtered.