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I dont understand this expression 'Frankly, so far, so dull' in this paragraph:

'When his father died, he slaughtered his brothers to capture the throne. He then invaded the neighbouring state of Kalinga, killing 100,000 men, women and children. Frankly , so far, so dull. History is littered with corpses on battlefields' (it is about the man named Ashoka)

(from 'History of the world Episode 3 - The word and the sword' by Andrew Marrs)

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    It's elliptical. When you fill in the implied syntax you get something like: "Frankly, so far this story is so dull it is boring me to tears." The important thing to remember is that "the story" is the implied subject.
    – Robusto
    Commented Oct 24, 2015 at 13:26

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It's a play on the phrase:

So far, so good

This simply means that everything's been good up to this point. The writer has used the word dull where we might expect the word good. He hopes that this is going to make the writing dry and witty.

The word frankly is used to introduce something that people might find a little rude or critical. It makes it blunter than it otherwise would be.

Here is the page for so far so good at Oxford Dictionaries Online.

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  • @chaslyfromUK Thanks for the suggestion. Duly added :)
    – Araucaria - Him
    Commented Oct 24, 2015 at 14:12
  • The inadequacy of using only commas in different roles in close proximity is brought out here. I'd use an ellipsis after 'frankly' here to avoid possible confusion.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Oct 24, 2015 at 14:36
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The comment reflects a rather overused device in literary and film criticism. The critic, recounting the work's plot, interjects "so far, so ghastly", "so far, so predictable", or whatever adjective seems apposite at the time. It of course mirrors the more familiar cliché, "So far, so good", aiming to tickle the reader with an unexpected allusion. Usually, the hoped-for witty effect falls pretty flat for me, but de gustibus and so on...

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