The Musketeers BBC

[Simon Atford]

Ahem... John Blacke, Henry VIII's trumpeter, picture of, 1511. North African dancers in England 1470's... Othello was written in approx 1603 and although set in Venice he is a 'moor' its reasonable to assmehe had family elsewhere, even in France. And Alexandre Dumas wasn't exactly as white as the driven snow....

I'm enjoying it. Episode 2 a bit limp, watching next 2 tonight. Capaldi not hamming it up enough in my opinion, I'd have gone into full pantomime mode if it were mine and the lack of Rochefort is something I hope they address soon.

Bit of a silly romp, that's why I liked Ripper St and its 3 locations on permanent rotation but with different clothes lines in different places. Not watching it for costume details, just a distraction. A zillion times better than The White queen which was a dull self pretentious yawn fest. At least the first 15 mins were, gave up after that.

If you complain about hairstyles, the spanning of pistols, width of baldrics and the wrong hemlines on a bodice in a work of complete fiction, even if set in a specific period, well...

I think we all have a soft spot for Robin of Sherwood? That's not riveted mail of the right cross section! And some of it is a bit thin and stilted, and there are castle not built in that century, and the cartwheels are made wrong. Not suggesting this comes close, but as a reasonably inoffensive 50 mins, its fine. Its not the finest wine, but its not that bright blue Panda pop either imho.

If you did everything real it would take 20 times longer and cost 50 times more and its no more silly than Brotherhood of the Wolf and thats FAB!

Nothing will ever live up to the Richard Lester ones, too many fabulous things all coming together at the same time although I have a soft spot (I can hear the bile rising) for the Walt Disney one as its simply a very silly bad boys drink n drugs fueled escapade. Young Guns with rapiers.

No matter how bad it might be (and the reviews are getting better) its got a 2nd series so hoorah! All for one and one for all!

No Capaldi in the second series though (too busy with some obscure science fiction show apparently). Perhaps they'll bring in Rochefort as a replacement villain?

[Mark Griffin]

yes, good suggestion. I'm glad he's not in it. The Doctor is the Doctor. Not an actor who turns up in other things. Cos its real!

[Phoenix Rising]

Ahem... John Blacke, Henry VIII's trumpeter, picture of, 1511. North African dancers in England 1470's... Othello was written in approx 1603 and although set in Venice he is a 'moor' its reasonable to asume he had family elsewhere, even in France. And Alexandre Dumas wasn't exactly as white as the driven snow....

I'm enjoying it. Episode 2 a bit limp, watching next 2 tonight. Capaldi not hamming it up enough in my opinion, I'd have gone into full pantomime mode if it were mine and the lack of Rochefort is something I hope they address soon.

Bit of a silly romp, that's why I liked Ripper St and its 3 locations on permanent rotation but with different clothes lines in different places. Not watching it for costume details, just a distraction. A zillion times better than The White queen which was a dull self pretentious yawn fest. At least the first 15 mins were, gave up after that.

If you complain about hairstyles, the spanning of pistols, width of baldrics and the wrong hemlines on a bodice in a work of complete fiction, even if set in a specific period, well...

I think we all have a soft spot for Robin of Sherwood? That's not riveted mail of the right cross section! And some of it is a bit thin and stilted, and there are castle not built in that century, and the cartwheels are made wrong. Not suggesting this comes close, but as a reasonably inoffensive 50 mins, its fine. Its not the finest wine, but its not that bright blue Panda pop either imho.

If you did everything real it would take 20 times longer and cost 50 times more and its no more silly than Brotherhood of the Wolf and thats FAB!

Nothing will ever live up to the Richard Lester ones, too many fabulous things all coming together at the same time although I have a soft spot (I can hear the bile rising) for the Walt Disney one as its simply a very silly bad boys drink n drugs fueled escapade. Young Guns with rapiers.

No matter how bad it might be (and the reviews are getting better) its got a 2nd series so hoorah! All for one and one for all!

Couldn't agree more! After all, this is a work of fiction that uses characters from the book - it doesn't try and be a complete makeover of the book itself (despite the fact that some reviewers don't seem to be able to get their heads around that fact).

As Peter Jackson said when asked about the 'pureist's' criticism of the Lord of the Rings for not sticking exactly to the book, you have to make things both watchable and indeed filmable, and to try and tick every single box for 'authenticity' in productions like 'The Musketeers' would indeed I think do that. I for one am enjoying it for what it is, a bit of a distraction to a boring Sunday night with the added attraction of rapiers and pistols!

I do think that too much attention to detail can be just as bad as too little, and I love the way that some people will think nothing of rubbishing a show for the above reasons, yet are perfectly happy to laud praise on a production of Shakespeare when it is done in modern dress, which is totally and utterly out of context to the original!

[Phil the Grips]

yet are perfectly happy to laud praise on a production of Shakespeare when it is done in modern dress, which is totally and utterly out of context to the original!

Or, conversely, done in bang-on C16th costume yet the play is set in the C13th.

[Mark Griffin]

So I think what we really need is Piers Plowman done by 17th cent players who have been abducted by 24th century theatrical managers but sent back to the 12th century to perform...

[Attilla the Bun]

Nope, we need to continue to have swash-buckling eye-candy on a Sunday evening.
IMHO.

[Medicus Matt]

I've given up. Matey from BSG turning up with his 'Ray Winstone impersonating Jack Sparrow' act did it for us.
The acting is horrible.
If it had been shoved in the Merlin slot (because it's slightly less horrible than Atlantis) then I wouldn't mind so much but it doesn't belong in a 9pm, Sunday night, proper grown up drama slot.

[Mark Griffin]

But I bet Ed loved it. sailors! swords! maps! eye liner!

Fabulous...

[Angel of Lile]

Doesn't really matter cos it's not history, it's a story set in history much like Shakespeare's stories.

It's a C21st telling of a C19th story loosely set in the C17th, originally written by a man who was happy to churn out stuff for the most amount of cash for the lowest amount of effort aimed at the lowest common denominator; he'd be delighted with it.

I quite like the books...man in the iron mask is my fave of the musketeers stories (in print) I've never found the tv/film adaptations lived up to the books. imo. I think he was a bit of a fan fic writer that dumas....lol

Yeah I like the books too. Love Man in the Iron Mask, and actually a pretty big fan of the film with DiCaprio, Irons, Malkovitch and Derpadeu ( ). Although Monte Cristo is superior to the Musketeers books I think.

(Not enjoying the current BBC adaption.)

[John Waller]

I think there is something wrong with my wheellock as it doesn't make a noise like a bolt action rifle when I cock it. Can anyone suggest how I can fix it?

[Simon Atford]

I think there is something wrong with my wheellock as it doesn't make a noise like a bolt action rifle when I cock it. Can anyone suggest how I can fix it?

You need to employ a foley artist to follow you around everywhere.

[John Waller]

I think there is something wrong with my wheellock as it doesn't make a noise like a bolt action rifle when I cock it. Can anyone suggest how I can fix it?

You need to employ a foley artist to follow you around everywhere.

I do, but he only has one pair of hands and needs those for the coconut shells

[Simon Atford]

I think there is something wrong with my wheellock as it doesn't make a noise like a bolt action rifle when I cock it. Can anyone suggest how I can fix it?

You need to employ a foley artist to follow you around everywhere.

I do, but he only has one pair of hands and needs those for the coconut shells

Surely you stop your horse when you fire your wheelock?

[Phoenix Rising]

It seems that now the series has begun to establish itself, the critics are being more considerate towards it, and it has been renewed for a second series.

I think one of the problems with any new series is that it needs to time to find its feet, and very often people have a tendency to leap on the bandwagon of how terrible it is, how badly acted or whatever before it gets a chance to settle down a bit.

I for one am enjoying a bit of escapism on a Sunday night, historically knit-picky accurate or not!

[Medicus Matt]

people have a tendency to leap on the bandwagon of how terrible it is, how badly acted or whatever before it gets a chance to settle down a bit.

It's not like they're doing it live and their performances are going to get better with practice.
If the script, direction and acting are crappy at the beginning, chances are it's not going to improve.
Character development isn't really a consideration in this case, given that they don't have any.

[Phoenix Rising]

One thing that's been interesting to see has been the reaction / criticism to Porthos having been made into a mixed race character.

However, from what I've read it seems that Dumas might well have nodded his approval of this, as he himself was descended from mixed race parentage via his father, Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, whose own father was French and his mother Haitian.