From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman

Episode 4

Episode 4 of From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman tries to balance its various elements but doesn't quite deliver any lasting impact.

There's nothing wrong with this week's episode or anything. The fight at the dungeon/lair is interesting enough, and the stakes feel appropriate. The scene at the blacksmith introduces a new character and some new world details we didn't get before. The scene where Curuni rediscovers her love of training is tonally solid. Even the final sequence with the magically empowered street urchin adds a new wrinkle to the world that we haven't seen before.

I wish that any of it had left much of a lasting impact.

The fight with the target monster is just over far too quickly. I do like that Surena and Beryl work together to take down the creature, and the shot of Surena descending on the beast while her reflection is in its eye is good. That said, the fight doesn't last long enough to generate the sense of desperation I hoped we would get. It's over far too soon, and we're back to complimenting Beryl at every turn while his students fight over him.

This bit with the former students fighting over Beryl has already worn out its welcome in my opinion. It just seems so perfunctory and obvious, I don't find it all that enjoyable. Curuni doesn't get engaged with the nonsense, but then her training sequence doesn't reveal anything novel about her character either. “She likes to train just like when she was a child, repeating the same lines over and over…” seems to lock her into a single point in time rather than exploring how she's changed and grown over the years, or even how those past lessons influenced her future endeavours.

Hopefully, the magical youth and bandits(?) inject some more interesting events into next week's episode.

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From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Videos on Saturdays.