The Musketeers
Original air date : 19th January 2014
Status : 1 season broadcasted
Number of season : 2
Country : England
Channel : BBC1
Created by : Adrian Hodges
Genre : Historical, action, drama
Cast : Peter Capaldi, Luke Pasqualino, Santiago Cabrera, Tom Burke, Howard Charles, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Alexandra Dowling, Maimie McCoy…
Story : Set on the streets of 17th century Paris, series gives a contemporary take on the classic story about a group of highly trained soldiers and bodyguards assigned to protect King and country (source : IMDB)
My Review (may contain some spoilers) :
The BBC’s dramas never disappointed me and I had never actually seen anything about the musketeers, even if I know the story (for a french girl, it’s a bit embarrassing…), so this series was a good way to start with Alexandre Dumas’ famous characters. And I wanted to see Peter Capaldi before I’m going to see him as the new Doctor Who (I was also missing Sherlock already, but that’s not a good reason).
And one more time, I haven’t been disappointed. I was even looking forward to the sundays to see what was going to happen in the next episode. There is a lot of action, some love, plenty of humour and the right amount of drama. My expectations were totally rewarded.
The story doesn’t wait 10 episodes to develop and finish a long plot. Athos finds out quite early in the series that his wife is not so dead, Aramis never actually knows what happens to the cardinal’s mistress, D’Artagnan’s dad is avenge at the end of the first episode. That a good change. In over series, Athos would have know that his wife is alive way later in the series, maybe even in another season, Aramis would have known at some point that the Cardinal get her mistress executed and D’Artagnan would have been able to avenge his dad’s death only in the last episode. So it is a good change to see that sub-plots don’t take to much time to resolve in the story. Or don’t resolve at all, which is sometime a bad thing, sometime a good thing. Nobody can know everything, right ?
And one more time, I haven’t been disappointed. I was even looking forward to the sundays to see what was going to happen in the next episode. There is a lot of action, some love, plenty of humour and the right amount of drama. My expectations were totally rewarded.
The story doesn’t wait 10 episodes to develop and finish a long plot. Athos finds out quite early in the series that his wife is not so dead, Aramis never actually knows what happens to the cardinal’s mistress, D’Artagnan’s dad is avenge at the end of the first episode. That a good change. In over series, Athos would have know that his wife is alive way later in the series, maybe even in another season, Aramis would have known at some point that the Cardinal get her mistress executed and D’Artagnan would have been able to avenge his dad’s death only in the last episode. So it is a good change to see that sub-plots don’t take to much time to resolve in the story. Or don’t resolve at all, which is sometime a bad thing, sometime a good thing. Nobody can know everything, right ?
Aramis, Porthos, Athos and d’Artagnan
As I said, I wanted to see Peter Capaldi before his Doctor Who apparition. And well, I’ve been reassured. He is totally convincing as the Cardinal Richelieu, Machiavellian character who doesn’t care for anybody except himself. I already knew Santiago Cabrera, with Merlin (where he played Lancelot) and Heroes. He is definitely better in historical thing, romantic and chivalrous man who cares not only for his friends. I also knew Ryan Gage a bit, only because of The Hobbit. His role as the King of France is absolutely great. This spoiled man doesn’t seem to know a thing about commoners but he seems to genuinely care about them, in his own way.
I didn’t know the others and for what I saw in The Musketeers, there are all pretty good. The girls are not only here to fill the quota of women. The Queen, played by Alexandra Downling (saw in Game Of Thrones…you know, The Red Wedding…), is not only here to play the Queen, Madame de Bonacieux, played by Tamla Kari, is quite a character and Milady de Winter is not easily fooled, neither by his enemies or allies. There are all strong women who allow themselves to sometime show some weakness but in a good way. Howard Charles and Tom Burke are totally credible as Musketeers. Especially Tom Burke, who portray a Athos with quite a heavy story and he is playing with accuracy.
At first, I was a bit afraid by Luke Pasqualino playing d’Artagnan. I found him a bit young for such a heavy role. But I found out he played in Skins and all my worries were gone. Even if I’ve never seen Skins (and I don’t really plan on seeing it), I saw some actors from this series and all were really good (especially Joe Dempsie and Hannah Murray), so I then was sure Pasqualino would be good at it. And well, I was right. He is a really good d’Artagnan.
I didn’t know the others and for what I saw in The Musketeers, there are all pretty good. The girls are not only here to fill the quota of women. The Queen, played by Alexandra Downling (saw in Game Of Thrones…you know, The Red Wedding…), is not only here to play the Queen, Madame de Bonacieux, played by Tamla Kari, is quite a character and Milady de Winter is not easily fooled, neither by his enemies or allies. There are all strong women who allow themselves to sometime show some weakness but in a good way. Howard Charles and Tom Burke are totally credible as Musketeers. Especially Tom Burke, who portray a Athos with quite a heavy story and he is playing with accuracy.
At first, I was a bit afraid by Luke Pasqualino playing d’Artagnan. I found him a bit young for such a heavy role. But I found out he played in Skins and all my worries were gone. Even if I’ve never seen Skins (and I don’t really plan on seeing it), I saw some actors from this series and all were really good (especially Joe Dempsie and Hannah Murray), so I then was sure Pasqualino would be good at it. And well, I was right. He is a really good d’Artagnan.
Queen Anne ( Alexandra Dowling)
Aramis, d’Artagnan and Porthos
Milady de Winter and Athos (Tom Burke)
The Cardinal and the King (Ryan Gage)
Porthos ( Howard Charles)
Aramis (Santiago Cabrera)
Cardinal Richelieu (Peter Capaldi)
Milady de Winter (Maimie McCoy)
The three Musketeers
D’Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino)
Constance de Bonacieux ( Tamla Kari)
So it’s a nice series, even a typical BBC series. I am really looking forward to seeing the next series, even though Peter Capaldi won’t probably be in it.
Mark : 7,5/10
Trailer :
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