The Musketeers: Series 1, Episode 1 – “Friends and Enemies” (2014)

 

The snow outside my apartment and the below-freezing temperatures will laugh at this, but we are now technically out of winter.  That’s right:  it’s Capaldi Spring.  Not that we’ll make it through another season.  This is one of the last PC projects I have access to, so new that it’s still airing in the U.K.  The season’s almost finished, though, and I have a decent head start, so I should almost be able to make it to the end without any breaks.

 

This show is of course exactly what you expect, D’Artagnan and his all-for-one pals.  I’ve not read The Three Musketeers, so I don’t know if the series follows the novel or if it just puts the characters in new plots.  Seems like it’ll be fairly serialized; several wheels are clearly set in motion in the pilot.  Additionally, all the characters are introduced, and D’Artagnan, earnest and newly fatherless, is brought into the musketeers’ sphere through a case of mistaken identity.

 

PC is a regular in this series, playing the shady Cardinal Richelieu.  Despite his position, Richelieu is quite fond of his vices.  He’s dangerously possessive of his preferred mistress, and he has very few scruples when it comes to retaining the ear of the king.

 

So far, he seems like a black-hat-wearing baddie through and through.  He also has a talent for self-justification and is impervious to any disparaging remarks made by those appalled at his actions.  Nothing especially complex yet, but it’s early days.  While I don’t imagine anything revelatory, it may prove to be a pretty enjoyable role.

 

D’Artagnan is played by Luke Pasqualino, who was Freddie on Skins.  On the musketeer side, we have Santiago Cabrera (Isaac, the painter/prophet from Heroes) and Tom Burke, who I remember best as the lad who did all the transcriptions in State of Play.  This episode also features David Verrey from the unfortunate Slitheen two-parter on the first series of Who.

 

First impressions:

 

Accent Watch

 

A decent RP.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Possibly.  It strikes me so far as mindlessly enjoyable entertainment – not great television, but amusing enough.

 

PC-wise – Maybe.  He obviously has a prominent role.  We’ll see how Richelieu is used in the coming episodes.

 

Warnings

 

Sexual content (including references to prostitution,) drinking, and lots of 17^th-century violence, mostly swordfights.