The first two episodes of Chief of War are mostly table-setting: introducing the characters and laying out the central plot. They get the job done, but the personal drama and political maneuvering are so familiar you could trim half the runtime without losing a thing. We’ve all sat through this story before—no need to have it ladled into our laps scene by scene.

The fact that it’s staged in a time and place rarely explored on screen (outside of Moana, anyway) feels less like bold storytelling and more like window dressing to make an old formula look fresh.

Here, the formula is a reluctant, retired warrior lured back into battle under false pretenses—only to be betrayed and swear revenge… at least so far. Episode 2 leaves off with a cliffhanger that hints at better things to come, but until then, it’s hard not to find your attention wandering. And even if your eyes drift to your phone for entire stretches, you’ll track the plot without missing a beat (even though 99% of the dialogue requires subtitles)—because the beats are the same ones countless other shows and movies have marched to.