In an oxygen-depleted dystopia, those charged with delivering the life sustaining gas achieve knight like status. But why does ‘5-8’, the most legendary of them all, want to train young Sa-Wol to join the heroic clan?

Heigh-ho. Another month, another apocalypse. In fact, by my count, this South Korean sci-fi is the sixth dystopian drama to shout ‘we’re doomed!’ at me this year, and it isn’t even June yet. I have a distinct case of End-of-the-World Fatigue, so it was going to have to work pretty hard to hold my attention.

Pleased to report, that two episodes in, Black Knight is a respectable addition to this overpopulated canon.

It’s 2071 and a stray comet has reduced the Korean peninsula to an arid wasteland. Oxygen is a luxury granted only to the privileged few, leaving the masses to gasp for breath. It’s not unfamiliar territory, and our hero, ‘5-8’, at the wheel of his massive articulated lorry, braving sandstorms and gangs of raiders to deliver his precious cargo, is surely a nod to Mad Max, even if the green screen and overused VFX lack the visceral punch of George Miller’s classic movies, where the stunts looked dirty and as if they really hurt.

If you can forgive its moments of digital artificiality the story soon engages. Kim Woo-bin has a decent screen charisma as ‘5-8’, even if he looks as if he moisturizes unnecessarily for someone on the other side of Armageddon. I’m slightly more convinced by Kang You-seok as Sa-Wol, the mysterious refugee foundling, and his gang of grubby adolescent urchins, and I’m looking forward to seeing their relationships develop, which have already been spiced up by some intriguing plot twists.

The show is at its weakest following some kind of villainous conspiracy which I’m struggling to care about. Not for the first time I find myself wishing that the creators of these shows could think in three dimensions when concocting their ‘bad guys’. They are so rarely recognisable as human beings. Why should I be bothered about them when they are little more than moustache twirling evil stereotypes?

Verdict: Black Knight isn’t groundbreaking, but so far, it’s a decent yarn, I mostly believe in its world, and I want to know what happens. Given how many shows don’t fulfil those basics, I’m sticking with it. 7/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com