Sa-Wol has won a place as Deliveryman 5-7, but at what cost?

For all its mish-mash of familiar dystopian tropes, I had been enjoying Black Knight. I should have quit while I was ahead.

Oh dear. There’s no way of softening the blow. Having teed itself up nicely with the shocking massacre at the end of episode 4, Black Knight completely mishits and sends any semblance of coherent storytelling scudding hopelessly into the rough, where it gets completely lost.

Having successfully got us to invest in Sa-Wol’s quest to rise as a hero from the disenfranchised refugee classes alongside the legendary 5-8, he becomes little more than a minor subplot in a denouement that mostly concerns characters we barely know and certainly don’t care about. There’s lots of shooting but it’s not clear what’s at stake, nor who is betraying who. I have no idea what the conspiracy is about, nor why no-one has noticed what was going on, given that it turns out there was a rather nice and incorruptible lady president in charge all along.

To make matters worse the show seems to give up on its own rules just when it needs them the most. While various malign agents are tracked everywhere they go, with implants in their heads that explode at the first hint of transgression, 5-8 and his chums seem to come and go from their insurgent HQ without anyone noticing. Nor does anyone seem to care that they’re spending all their time building a revolution rather than keeping up with their day jobs which seemed to be quite important in the opening episodes. As dystopias go, it’s pretty lax, and I’m sure I won’t have been alone in thinking that these baddies were seriously in need of a dystopia refresher course.

Verdict: Black Knight started out as a derivative, but stylish and fun watch. If you haven’t already wasted your time on this very disappointing show I strongly recommend getting out while you still can. 2/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com