New Worlds is billed as a kind of sequel to 2008's The Devil's Whore, which dealt with the English Civil War. New Worlds opens two decades later in 1680, during the rule of King Charles II. Charles II (Jeremy Northam) seeks revenge against those who conspired to murder his father years earlier. Perpetrators are sought in Europe as well as Massachusetts, which the show portrays in a historically simplistic way as a safe haven for freedom-seeking English people who only want to live and worship as they please. The series tries to underline historical events by showing an uncomplicated, linear evolution of progress, while allowing its characters to espouse platitudes of freedom and the right of self-governance, which is always at the heart of the justification for colonial expansion. Its platitudes are nothing new to American audiences, and so New Worlds gives them nothing new to think about.

New Worlds emphasize not only the idealistic ambition of its four leading characters and their banal love story as two couples on two different continents who are at the center of events surrounding the reign of Charles II, the settling of the American colonies, and a battle between Catholics and Protestants. In England, Beth Fanshawe (Freya Mavor) is the better half of one of one of the two couples. Her romance with unintentionally creepy wood-dweller Abe Goffe (Jamie Dornan) slows down the overstuffed series to a crawl by the second episode by giving their boring relationship time to develop. The other couple featured in the series meet in the Colonies just as the female half, Hope (Alice Englert), casually kills a Native American man and then scalps him. She explains to her English love interest Ned (Joe Dempsie) immediately after killing him that she had to scalp the Indian to make it look as though he was killed by "one of his own". Since the majority of Americans know little about 17th century British history, the packaging for the US release focuses on the romance between the two couples. The timing of the release to the U.S. is also suspiciously close to the promotion of Dornan's leading role in Fifty Shades of Grey, which was released theatrically in the U.S. at the same time as Acorn's New Worlds DVD. Selling the banal love story between Fanshawe, Goffe, Hope, and Ned proves that the series' creators are more interested in cashing in on the recent Fifty Shades phenomenon than they are in presenting an honest depiction of the history of their country.

The simplistic portrayal of indigenous people isn't without its perfunctory self-congratulatory lament about their treatment by European settlers. Ned laments his family's wealth by questioning what right his father's company has to cultivate land previously occupied by indigenous people. But this sort of facile sentiment is a substitution for writing Indian characters that are three-dimensional. The series takes a ludicrous turn when one of the British characters marries an Indian man, a stoic stock Indian from the Western genre. The series has to ability to show the complexities of the historical period it is trying to portray. All is lost to ineffective romance and cliched archetypes.

New Worlds hovers between stodgy historical drama and disposable swashbuckling epic. The four main characters of the series are meant to be portrayed as important players in world affairs, on the cusp of historical events that will change everything. But the series, and the timing of its release in America, shows a motivation to capitalize off of the notoriety of Fifty Shades of Grey and the success of Game of Thrones. The series has the former's vapid romance and the latter's propensity for bloody violence, but with allusions to historical accuracy. The cinematography and action sequences are large-scale, even for an "event" show like New Worlds. The scale of the 2.35:1 aspect ratio sized images gives the series a sweep and scale that it hasn't fully earned, and is too large for a TV series.

The DVD

The Video: New World's 2.35:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for 16x9 TVs, is very clear, and the colors are vivid and earthy. For such a large image, there is a lot of noticeable detail. One of the few highlights of the series were its images, which where sometimes so grand and more appropriate for the big screen.

The 5.1 surround is just as nuanced as the detailed cinematography, especially during the action sequence at the North American colony in the beginning of the first episode. Sound is one of the technical aspects that the show's DVD excels at. The surround sound is particularly atmospheric during outdoor exterior scenes. In these scenes, the various sounds of nature and the outdoor world are spread over every speaker, giving an immersive feeling. There are also English subtitles for the hearing impaired.

Extras: The series is spread out over two DVDs. The extras are on disc two, and compared to the series' strenuous four hours, the extras are somewhat paltry. However, there are a handful of very short documentaries that explain how some of the aspects of the production came together. There is a three minute documentary about the actors and their process, in which they give prescripted soundbites. This featurette adds little to the experience of watching the show because the lack of information about the story or the production. Short featurettes about the historical research of the script and the production design are useful for those interested in studying the various departments that work on a film production. The story for New Worlds has quite a few shortcomings, but one can appreciate all of the work that went into bringing together such a big production.

There is also a photo gallery of behind the scenes photos and several minutes' worth of deleted scenes. At four hours, it's almost hard to believe that anything was left on the cutting room floor. Nothing about the special features adds to the experience of the series, nor do they give any wider context for those who may not be up to date on their 1600s British history.

Final Thoughts:
Placing so much emphasis on the two loves stories in New Worlds slows down the series' pacing. Told from a European perspective, the film skews British history the same way countless Westerns and other, American-made historical epics depict European settlement of North America as a civilizing saving grace. However, the sound and image quality of the 2 DVD set are nice to experience because of the care and detail that went into their creation. The length of the miniseries and the hyped-up nature of New Worlds as a large scale epic, historical drama were not conveyed well, save for its cinematography and production design.