If J.R.R. Tolkien had dropped acid while writing The Lord of the Rings, he might have ended up with something like Britannia. The new “historical” show on Amazon Prime is loosely inspired by the Roman invasion of Britain in the first century AD. Following in the footsteps of Game of Thrones (which might not be back until 2019), Britannia has brutal battles, Machiavellian rulers, political intrigue, and fancy costumes. But Britannia avoids being a clone of HBO’s flagship fantasy by being, well, really trippy.

I’m not really exaggerating about the drugs. Almost every character seems to be high on druid shrooms or mystical smoke, even as they decapitate one another. Two fleeing Roman soldiers literally spend months in a shack tripping on a shaman’s secret stores and debating religion. The theme song is a cover of Donovan’s ‘60s psychedelic song “Hurdy Gurdy Man”! Yes, this is ridiculous, but sometimes a show that doesn’t take itself so seriously is a good thing.

Britannia opens with the Roman general Aulus Plautius (David Morrissey, a.k.a. the Governor from The Walking Dead) leading an invasion of Britain. The Roman soldiers fear the island is filled with ghosts and demons, but after Aulus kills some mutineers, they make it across in time to slaughter a bunch of local tribespeople in the middle of an eclipse festival. Elsewhere, the Celtic tribes Cantii and Regni look to patch up their rivalry with a marriage that instead ends with a pile of bodies as the Regni’s Queen Antedia (Zoë Wanamaker) screams, “I shit on the souls of your dead!” These tribes have some bad blood dating back to the Cantii princess Kerra (Kelly Reilly) castrating Queen Antedia’s son. This sets up the three rival factions: the Cantii in their mountain citadel, the Regni with their terrifying lady boss and bright blue outfits, and the Romans looking to play them off each other and collect some taxes for the emperor. The fourth wild card group are the creepy-ass druids led by Veran (Mackenzie Crook, unrecognizable in scarification makeup and filed teeth) that dispense drugs and execution orders for their own purposes.

Britannia might not have dragons, but there’s magic in these mystic hills. The dead speak. Prophecies abound. Druids can Jedi mind-trick with a pebble. As the season goes on, characters increasingly believe that a powerful earth demon, Lokka, is influencing events…and they’re probably right. This might be a historical drama, but there is precious little history here beyond the names of tribes and the year Romans invaded. Instead, Britannia tries to evoke the mysticism of ancient England, a time of earth magic, blood rites, and sacrifice.

While it might not reach the Emmy-winning heights of Game of Thrones, Britannia has a solid cast, gorgeous landscapes, and a welcome absurdity to it all. It’s a worthy show to binge while you wait for the Starks and Lannisters to return next year.