It’s not often that I feel
inspired to review movies or a series. However, The Musketeers is what you’d
call a ‘must-watch’ series. I hesitated before picking this up. I mean, how
many versions have already been done of Dumas’ story? But something said, go
on, have a look. Well, I was riveted. First, the series is perfectly cast. I
cannot imagine any other actors playing the roles that these performers filled.
The costumes are perfect, the settings beautiful (even the grotty streets with mud,
mud, and more mud), the action is real, and thankfully the fights are perfectly
timed and do not go on so long that you’re mentally saying, “For pity’s sake,
kill him already!”
The episodes pay homage to the
original story, but veer off into great little side plots. Yes, you know that
at the end of each episode things will be resolved in favour of the musketeers,
but that’s fine, that’s good, and there’s none of this new trend of producers
to lure viewers into loving and rooting for a character, only to have him/her
killed off in a nasty “take that, suckers!” kind of attitude. In fact, the very
lack of vicious, gratuitous violence, abusive kinds of sex, and needless nudity
that sadly seems to be popular with a famous series (no names here) is part of
the reason why I stuck with and so enjoyed this series. Everything that
happened was meaningful, within context, and played a part in the overall story
arc.
For once, I want to mention the
villains more than the heroes. Possibly because I have stopped watching The
Walking Dead because for some reason the producers or the scriptwriters have
turned a fine actor like Jeffrey Dean Morgan into a leering “Mwahahaha” villain
with the depth of a puddle and little or no intrigue or back story to make one
want to watch further. The Musketeers’ villains are just wonderful. From the
coldly calculating and Machiavellian Richelieu (superbly and intelligently
played by Peter Capaldi) to the psychotically cruel but lovelorn Comte de
Rochefort (a brilliant Marc Warren) to the horribly creepy and plotting Marquis
de Feron (also brilliantly played by an almost unrecognisable Rupert Everett)
to Milady, whose love for her husband was destroyed. These villains all have
some redeeming quality – hard to find in some cases, but it’s there. Richelieu
loves France; Rochefort loves the queen; Feron discovers that he is, in fact,
loved and accepted by Louis, and that changes everything. A villain must have
depth for viewers to want to keep watching. Milady is a study in complexity and
far from the surface villainess one might initially label her.
Another character I thought
really warrants mentioning is Louis himself, and how actor Ryan Gage chose to
portray him. It’s hard to give life to someone who comes across as capricious,
shallow, vain, and self centred. But Ryan Gage managed to imbue the character
of Louis with a certain childlike charm, a naiveté, and even an innocence,
sheltered as he was from the realities of life. I thought the actor brought tremendous
depth to a character who might have been dismissed as annoying but necessary.
Last but not least, take the
time to watch the Extras on the DVDs. They are informative and very enjoyable.
Sword fighting and horse riding is not as easy as these fine actors make it
look.
