Tag Archives: BBC America

‘The Musketeers’ and ‘The Three Musketeers’

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I’ve always loved Musketeers stories.

I’m pretty sure I read Alexandre Dumas’ novel of 17th-century Musketeers – the king’s guard – when I was still young and certainly before the 1973 Richard Lester movie version. I really loved Lester’s movie and its made-at-the-same-time sequel, “The Four Musketeers,” which was funny and slapstick and swashbuckling all at the same time. The movies clinched my love of the story and characters, a love that deepened when I saw the very different but equally thrilling 1948 version starring Gene Kelly and Van Heflin.

So I’ve enjoyed getting a double-dose of Musketeers lately with a BBC America series, “The Musketeers,” and a repeat viewing of Lester’s first movie.

“The Musketeers” is a handsome version of the story of young French farm boy d’Artagnan, who goes to Paris on a mission of revenge but soon finds companions in three of the king’s best Musketeers, suave Aramis, tragic Athos and brawling Porthos.

The series has the court intrigue, double-crossings and mysterious motives familiar from the story. The four Musketeers are stalwart but portrayed as men with faults and secrets.

Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu in the BBC's The Musketeers.
A nice bonus is the presence of Peter Capaldi, who just last night began his tenure as the Doctor in “Doctor Who,” as Cardinal Richelieu, often portrayed as a villain but given some interesting shading here.

The series finishes up tonight, but I’m sure you can catch it streaming or on demand.

As for a recent chance to re-watch Lester’s original “Three Musketeers,” with Michael York, Raquel Welch and the amazing Oliver Reed, I rediscovered my love for the movie again.

the three musketeers 1973
But I hadn’t remembered how goofy parts of the movie were.

And for all the talk about modern-day movies hinting at or previewing future movies in a series, “The Three Musketeers” ends with scenes from its sequel.

It was a practice the producers, the Salkinds, pioneered here and tried to do again with the first two “Superman” movies. In the latter series, the producers threw out much of the footage shot for the sequel. With the “Musketeers” films, some members of the cast sued because they had been paid for only one movie.

Pretty sure Peter Jackson worked out such details with the “Lord of the Rings” cast before the fact.

‘Orphan Black’ a fine thriller

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In this day of online spoilers and instant reviews via Twitter or other social media, it’s rare that the world – and the geek world in particular – catches on to a new TV show only gradually. But that’s what happened with “Orphan Black.”

The U.S.-Canadian series aired the first of its 10-episode season on BBC America at the end of March. I’d heard good things about it, but with so many high quality cable series going on right now – “Mad Men” was still airing, as was “Justified” I believe – I thought I would have to catch up on it later. Only so many hours in the day and all that.

The buzz on the drama was consistent, however, and I’ve been working through the series since early spring.

And I’m happy to say the buzz was right on the money. The show is good and the star, Tatiana Maslany, is great.

If you haven’t heard – or been watching – by now, the series by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett focuses on Sarah Manning (Maslany), a woman living on the ragged edge of legality with her foster brother, Felix (wonderful Jordan Gavaris). Sarah’s young daughter. Kira, lives with Mrs. S (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Sarah and Felix’s foster mom.

Sarah’s disreputable side of life existence goes down the rabbit hole one day in the subway when she is horrified to see a woman commit suicide by walking off the platform in front of a train. What’s possibly more horrifying: The woman, a police detective named Beth, was a dead ringer for Sarah.

Sarah takes the dead woman’s purse and begins investigating her lookalike with an eye toward impersonating her long enough to clean out her bank account. This necessitates some hot kitchen counter sex with Beth’s boyfriend, Paul (Dylan Bruce) and encounters with Beth’s cop partner, dogged Art Bell (Kevin Hanchard).

Before long, though, Sarah (posing as Beth) discovers she had more than one lookalike. She meets Alison, a tightly wound suburban mom, Cosima, a free-spirited grad student, and – most terrifyingly – Helena, who seems to be an assassin.

As Sarah, aided by Alison and Cosima – and snarky Felix – investigate the mystery of their existence, they discover they’re clones, created and sent out into society with “monitors” – sometimes referred as “watchers,” which made me think of “Buffy” – who keep track of this twisted laboratory experiment.

As they try to avoid exposure by the police, assaults by Helena and the manipulations of the monitors, the “orphan” clones try to get to the central mystery of their lives: Why are they here?

Maslany has received a lot of entirely justified praise for her performance as the clones. Often acting opposite herself – composited later via special effects – Maslany brings ample personality to each: Tough and streetwise Beth, refined soccer mom Alison, smart and vulnerable Cosima, menacing Helena and others with smaller roles.

Like Maslany, the supporting cast – which includes Matt Frewer as a doctor and author with a role in the mystery – is really topnotch. Like “Lost Girl” – which I really enjoyed but found kind of repetitive – and “The Fades,” “Orphan Black is a next-generation version of “Buffy” with its core character – characters, in this case – of a strong young woman fighting to find answers to her own questions.

A second season of “Orphan Black” is coming in April 2014, but you’ve got time to catch up online, on demand or on disc. It’s a fun, often funny, often poignant thriller.

 

‘The Fades’ has left me wanting more

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Nine years after its departure, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has left a big, hellmouth-sized void in TV fantasy. But a couple of shows are filling that void.

As much as “Lost Girl,” the Canadian series airing on SyFy, fulfills our minimum daily requirement for “Buffy”-style wit and fantastic action, the BBC series “The Fades” — which has finished airing on BBC America, but can still be found On Demand and on DVD — features other “Buffy” touchstones.

The show is about a teenager, Paul (Iain de Castecker), who comes to find out he is the chosen one, destined to lead the forces of good (Angelics) in their battle with the Fades, a murderous group of walking dead who feast on the living.

But the Fades aren’t just mindless zombies. As led by John (Ian Hanamore in one incarnation, Joe Dempsie in another), the Fades have apocalyptic plans for the world in general and Paul’s town in particular.

It’s up to Paul to protect not only his nerdy, pop culture-obsessed friend Mac (Daniel Kaluuya, whose Brit speak can be hard to figure out but whose constant nerdy references and opening story recaps are a highlight of the series), but his mom (Claire Rushbrook), his obnoxious sister Anna (Lily Loveless) and Jay (Sophie Wu), Anna’s friend and object of Paul’s affection.

Like Buffy, Paul must balance his duties as an unwilling and initially unwitting Angelic with guidance from Neil (Johnny Harris), an Angelic who becomes Paul’s mentor.

But Neil is no Rupert Giles, whose loving but sometimes exasperated guidance of Buffy was one of the cornerstones of that show. Neil is a bastard obsessed with egging Paul into facing off with John and the rest of the Fades.

The show is given texture by other characters, including Sarah (Natalie Dormer), an Angelic who is killed and returns as a Fade.

And hanging over everything, literally, is the end of the world. “The  Fades” shares with “Buffy” the central character’s ability to see the future. Paul’s visions of the end of the world — ash-filled skies and even more dead bodies than are popping up during the normal course of the day — cast a pall even over the daily horrors.

You might find that “The Fades” starts off with a slightly ragged tone. Hang in there. This is a series that starts uneven but very quickly finds its pace.

“The Fades” is punctuated by humor but is as grim as “Lost Girl” is light-hearted. Before the six-episode first season is complete, some very dire things happen to the characters.

The show premiered in Britain last fall and I’m not sure if a second season is underway or planned. I hope it is. Although the threat of John and the Fades is, to a great extent, resolved by the end of the first six episodes, the fate of the world is not. Things look pretty grim as the final scene fades to black.

For “The Fades,” it’s the perfect ending.

‘The Fades’ is creepy fun

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If “The Fades,” a new supernatural series on BBC America, seems a little familiar, it’s no wonder. After all, it’s about a teenage outcast who discovers the ability to detect and battle supernatural creatures. The teen is aided by dorky friends and mentored by an adult monster-hunter.

Sound like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” Well, yes and no.

Paul, the British teen at the center of the series, is no Buffy Summers. He’s not especially heroic. He wets the bed.

But “The Fades” very well might take the “Buffy” premise and turn it into its own brand of good, creepy fun.

The show, which has been airing in the UK for a while but just debuted on BBC America (the first episode is still available for free On Demand; the second episode airs this Saturday), does employ the same kind of pop culture references that Buffy enjoyed. At some point, after Paul explains to dorky friend Mac that he’s able to see Fades — once-human walking corpses — Mac says he’s heard it before, in “The Sixth Sense.”

Mac becomes a believer, however. And Paul already has support from Neil, a disheveled middle-aged “Angelic” — living people like Paul who can see Fades — in his efforts to figure out what’s going on.

Among the mysteries: What is the violent, ultra-creepy Fade that’s attacking Angelics? And why does Paul have visions of an ash-filled global apocalypse?

The first episode of “The Fades” had a lot of intriguing ideas (although I confess I might have missed a few in the rapid-fire, Brit-accented dialogue) and some genuinely spooky scenes, especially those in a vast abandoned building.

I’m looking forward to seeing where “The Fades” goes next.