Riese: Kingdom Falling
The SciFi SyFy channel decided to put out short webisodes [is “webisode” a real word?] for a new Steampunk series called “Riese: Kingdom Falling”. Welcome to the mediocre broad commercialization of Steampunk.
Riese: Kingdom Falling takes place in Eleysia, a dying kingdom where distrust and anxiety have clouded people’s minds, causing a regression into primitive ways of thinking. Rituals and mythology have resurged, and the darker side of mankind has begun to reveal itself. Riese, a wanderer, travels across the decaying land with her wolf, Fenrir. Marked as a heretic by religious group The Sect and the new Empress, Riese must evade their assassins and discover their true intentions for Eleysia.
Ok, it’s not bad, it’s just not good. It strikes me as a low-budget half-hearted attempt to test the waters of Steampunk. It’s not unimaginative, it’s just that the plot has almost nothing to do with Steampunk. It’s like it was written by someone with a superficial understanding of Steampunk; someone who looked it up on Google but isn’t actually part of the community. If you watch the episodes, you’ll see the hap-hazard use of goggles and gears slapped about. I’m surprised the dog isn’t wearing goggles [sarcasm].
But perhaps I’m being too critical. Perhaps these people are simply too new to Steampunk and in their excitement rushed to put out something a little on the simplistic side. Perhaps it’s the kindergarten of Steampunk, diet Steampunk, low-budget Punk, or maybe it really is just a FailPunk. You can watch episodes on SyFy or Hulu.
