I am a sucker for a well made historical (or faux-historical/fantastical) TV drama. Ripper Street is gone (it may come back, but probably won't) and there's a few months before Game of Thrones returns in its stabby, sweary, sexy glory. So here's my opinion on a couple of first episodes of new TV series...
Musketeers, BBC.
The BBC has a reputation for well made historical TV dramas, but they haven't always hit the mark. The Paradise may be somewhat better than the crushingly dull Mr Selfridge, but ITV's Downton Abbey (now, tragically in its own downward spiral) utterly destroyed the rather turgid Upstairs, Downstairs, which the BBC clearly brought back to compete with Downton.
So, Musketeers. Press releases before stated that series was 'inspired' by the novel rather than based on it. It was clear from very early on that the classic story was going to be changed in a rather major way. Rochefort has vanished, for instance. (Although perhaps he'll pop up later?) D'Artagnan loses his father in the first few minutes, murdered by men pretending to be Musketeers, one of them specifically stating he is Athos. And thus D'Artagnan goes rushing to Paris to have his revenge...
Anyone who recalls the classic story will be aware that this is a very speedy way to get into the action, and it does somewhat remove some of the fun of the tale. Fortunately the characters stay quite close to their literary counterparts... Athos: The brooding one who broods, broodily. Aramis: The ladykiller with a streak of religious fervour. Porthos: The one who likes gambling, drinking and punching people. D'Artagnan: The hotblooded youth. That's a good thing. Other good things about the first episode...
Peter Capaldi plays Cardinal Richelieu with relish and cunning and strength. One high point is his scene with the young King, emotionally manipulating him and leaving him on the verge of tears. Constance is quite feisty and interesting. The plot, although different from the book, was mostly logical, and it was refreshing to see Aramis be the brains of the team. Also, it looks beautiful, with some of the cinematography being movie quality.
The not so good: It doesn't quite connect, somehow... I didn't really care about the characters. This may have been due to the changes in a familiar plot. It may have been the 'grittiness' robbed some of the fun and joie de vivre from the tale. However, that may be addressed in future episodes.
One thing that I have noticed about Musketeers is that it appears to be a 'marmite' show. On my facebook friends' list I noted a huge variety of opinions of the first episode, with some people loving it as a grown-up historical romp, whereas others found it dull and poorly written.
Personally, I rather enjoyed it. It didn't blow me away, but it was enjoyable and reasonably well paced and I think shows the potential to be quite good fun. Peter Capaldi is frankly worth the price of admission alone, which bodes very well for his tenure as The Doctor...
Black Sails, Starz.
Black Sails is a pirate based drama from Starz, the network that brought the world Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Like S:B&S, it's chock full of violence, boobies, swearing, intrigue, boobies, filth, sex, violence, glowering and boobies. But on a boat. Actually, I'm being flippant, as a good half of episode one is set on land.
Black Sails features some of the characters from Treasure Island, but twenty years before the events of that novel. Toby Stephens plays Captain Flint and I'm pretty sure that he's never been better than he is in this (although he displays a surprisingly comic talent in the film Severance, which is well worth seeing). Towards the end of the first episode Flint's mask falls away and we get a glimpse of who the Captain really is, and it's a wonderful moment in a very entertaining first episode.
The good: Lots of things happen, it looks gorgeous, it's well acted (Tom Hopper as Billy Bones is also fantastic), it never fails to entertain, and no one talks in a Yarr! I be a pirate! voice, thank goodness.
The bad: Lots of things happen and it's quite hard to keep up to date with all the characters (although thankfully they all look quite different so even if you can't remember the names you can still tell who people are).
I really enjoyed the first episode and I'm eagerly awaiting future installments.
