Tut
"Tut" provides an imaginative story based on a minor Pharaoh of ancient Egypt who became ruler as a child and died as a teenager. This ambitious miniseries weaves a fictional tale around the real-life struggles for power between his top general, his vizier, and the high priest in the context of his inability to produce a male heir. While little is actually known about this Pharaoh, the unique discovery of his hidden and largely untouched tomb made him a sensation in the early 20th century and rescued him from obscurity.
- Metascore46
- 2015-2015
- 1 season
- Spike TV
- Documentary, Drama
"Tut" provides an imaginative story based on a minor Pharaoh of ancient Egypt who became ruler as a child and died as a teenager. This ambitious miniseries weaves a fictional tale around the real-life struggles for power between his top general, his vizier, and the high priest in the context of his inability to produce a male heir. While little is actually known about this Pharaoh, the unique discovery of his hidden and largely untouched tomb made him a sensation in the early 20th century and rescued him from obscurity.
Season 1 Episode Guide
3 Episodes 2015
Episode 1
Part One: Power
Sun, Jul 19, 2015 89 mins
Pharaoh Akhenaton dies, poisoned by the supporters or the Amun high-priest's opposition to his novel religion and secular power monopoly, before he can pronounce his 'coward' kid son Tut, who refuses to kill a traitor's innocent son, unfit to succeed. The knave mounts the throne but real power is wielded by shrewd, yet state-loyal vizier Aye. Tut's sister and wife Ankhe, by tradition to keep the Pharaonic divine bloodline pure, has a 'secret' affair with Tut's friend and sword instructor Ka. Sneaking out of the palace incognito, Tut learns the real state of the land and his ridiculed status with the people from country girl Suhad, a half Mitanni. Tut wants to seize real power but can't get passed respected general Horemheb when the Mitanni prepare to invade, so he leads the expedition valiantly but is slain and left for dead even by Ka. Suhad's healing talent and loyal officer Lagus, whom they break out of Mitanny captivity, help him prepare his resurrection in unsuspecting Thebes, where Aye rightly fears a palace coup.
Episode 2
Part Two: Betrayal
Mon, Jul 20, 2015 86 mins
Tut's tiny party reaches Thebes just in time for him to throw of his disguise during the coronation of his 'successor' Ka, whom the 'living god' stabs to death for 'stealing' his queen even before vizier Ay explains she insisted to marry her lover rather then him. Tut wants to execute general Horemheb for high treason, but despite a failed escape and budding rebellion an Lagus's advice postpones the 'trial' as the Mitanni threat is worse then ever, due to a terrible epidemic which spares capital nor army. Tut's plan B, his niece Herit as bride to turn the Mitanni king into an ally, returns speared, so a campaign with weakened forces is inevitable. First the failing quarantine is followed by the desperate order to burn the sick of Thebes in a ghetto. Tut ignores that queen Ankhe, who fears to be replaced with the fertile half-blood wife Suhad after another miscarriage, actually Ka's posthumous child she was passing off as Tut's, tricked her rival to be locked in with her visiting rustic parents.
Episode 3
Part Three: Destiny
Tue, Jul 21, 2015 88 mins
Tut remounts the throne, but its rocks dangerously as the Mitanni alliance is likely to conquer Egypt, weakened by the plague. His sister-wife lost their heir, his half-blood queen is found among the burnt quarter victims. When the Mitanni crown prince arrives to demand half the kingdom as price for peace and the remainder, the Pharaoh ponders his desperate situation, surprisingly declines and stuns everybody by offering the hungry Mittanni alliance supplies instead, starting with a hundred carts. Only the inner circle learns that's a cover for an attack on the Mitanni capital, with an expeditionary army on his trail. Meanwhile court intrigues continue, involving the traitor queen, the vizier and his son and a rebelling by the Amun high priest's clergy army against Tut's plan to rekindle his father's single deity cult is suppressed.
