Season 1 – Pompeii: Out of Time With Tom Hiddleston

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Blair V @Plugger67 Sep 27, 2026 Liked the survivors angle but very Tom ruined it for us as was overdramatized and sometimes very corny. Three weeks ago we visited both Pompeii and Herculaneum so the Pretoria Guard story was a great connection we knew about. But the other ‘connections’ were a stretch esp the Avi story. Lots of artistic license taken. See more scott D @CatoPublius Aug 31, 2026 I was really looking forward to this. I love history, love documentaries (and good recreations) and I like Tom Hiddleston. This was so bad right out of the gate, I am having a hard time getting my head around it. Hiddleston makes it seem this is a very personal exploration for him - but then they do all this cheesy CGI magic-hand-waving, freeze-framing scholars while talking to them, and absolutely stupid dialogue comedy written for Hiddleston and the scholars. That's not a documentary. That's a puppet show. No thanks. I knew how bad it was going to get when I saw the new British penchant for throwing black actors into ahistorical settings without explanation - as if it were perfectly natural to have a black London/Nigerian playing a Roman blacksmith in 1st century Pompeii. Count me out. Explains why the critics are falling all over it. It's garbage. Skip it. Try "Pompeii: Life and Death in a Roman Town" (BBC, 2010). Or Pompeii: The New Dig (BBC/PBS Secrets of the Dead 2024) See more Chantelle C @RT44219268 Aug 30, 2026 Love learning about Pompeii, love documentaries but this is extremely difficult to watch. Constant pausing and "rewinding", overacting and a lot of speculation. Really disappointed with the result as the concept is great. See more Mimi D @RT16698271 Aug 30, 2026 Tom did such a wonderful job bringing to life such a tragedy. I cried through a lot of it. See more Michael D @MichaelX Aug 27, 2026 One of the greatest trips I have taken was to the Amalfi Coast for the wedding of two friends, capped by a day trip to Pompeii, long on my bucket lists. Our guide Theresa was extraordinary, and the experience left an indelible mark. Since then, anything Pompeii-related gets watched immediately. This three-part National Geographic docuseries, hosted by the charming and knowledgeable Tom Hiddleston, takes a fresh angle: rather than cataloguing the dead, it investigates who might have survived. Following three individuals including a teenage bronzesmith apprentice, a bathhouse-owning businesswoman, and an unnamed Praetorian guard, Hiddleston traces their names through the archaeological record across the Roman world post-eruption. It’s a valiant and often thrilling conceit, though the dramatic reconstructions occasionally tip into the overwrought. Still, that frisson of excitement watching ancient Pompeii spring back to life never dims. This is worth your time on Disney+. See more Ivan F @Neogrey Aug 22, 2026 It's a relatively big budget production with really educated VFX, set design, props and costume design. The drama part where Hiddleston is speculating on who these people were and what their motives were goes quite cheesy. I understand that he was quite invested as a youngster in everything about Pompeii and the roman empire, but all this dramatic stage performance was a bit too much for me. See more Read all reviews

Pompeii: Out of Time With Tom Hiddleston — Season 1

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