Other Doctor Lives: Watership Down: Episode 4 – “The Siege” (2018)

Okay, so I’ve come around pretty well on Watership Down, even if I still get the feeling that it waters things down from the book. The final episode of the miniseries brings it home in a compelling way.

Hazel and the rabbits of Watership Down will need to fight for their lives and their new home against General Woundwort’s forces at Efrafa. As they fortify their warren and prepare to defend it, it will take more than brute force to defeat the bigger, stronger, more numerous Efrafa warriors.

There’s quite a bit to like here. In David-and-Goliath-type battle stories, I always enjoy seeing the ways that the underdogs fight smart to take on a superior force (see: my undying love for Red Cliff,) and Hazel leads his warren in a fair amount of that. The rabbits display courage, determination, intelligence, and creativity during the fight, and no one rabbit is responsible for how it all goes down.

I also like how some of the dynamics within Efrafa itself work in Watership Down’s favor. This isn’t like the end of an Avengers movie where our heroes are battling hordes of nameless, faceless killing machines. Even though Efrafa’s warriors have committed all kinds of brutal acts, they aren’t a homogenous hive mind, and as General Woundwort’s obsession with destroying Watership Down grows deeper, not everyone is content to follow him blindly. That adds a nice tension to the proceedings.

One downside is that the atmospheric circumstances of the big confrontations, often some combination of in the rain, at night, or underground, mean it’s a little harder to see everything clearly and thus even more difficult to tell the rabbits apart by sight. By now, I’m more tuned into the different actors’ voices and can keep track of them pretty well that way, but despite watching all four episodes, I don’t know how many of the Watership Down rabbits I could easily clock by sight other than Bigwig, whose look is more distinctive. Otherwise, I’m more likely to go, “That’s Hazel/Strawberry/Fiver, right?” and listen for confirmation, and I still need to hear the voice to distinguish at all between a number of the others. The animation is pretty, but it doesn’t do the story a lot of favors.

While the final episode is exciting, what it doesn’t offer is much Peter Capaldi. Kehaar appears here, but not much, and when he is, it’s more about the action of how he’s involved in the scene rather than the dialogue he’s given. Capaldi does fine with it, obviously – there’s just not much for him to do.

And that wraps up Watership Down! Final recap.

Accent Watch

Exceedingly Scottish. I love an accent that can turn “worm” into a two-syllable word with about three R’s in it.

Recommend?

In General – I think I might. After a slow start, this miniseries grew on me, and if nothing else, it made me interested in revisiting the book and giving it a proper read.

Peter Capaldi – Not necessarily. Capaldi is entertaining as Kehaar, but he’s just not in this very much. I might recommend his first episode, “The Raid,” because it features the most of him.

Warnings

Lots of violence to animals (including torture and death,) scary images (despite the animation, this is not for kids,) and strong thematic elements.

Other Doctor Lives: Watership Down: Episode 3 – “The Escape” (2018)

Probably my favorite episode so far. Some good action, and it captures the impressions of bleakness I remember from the book (even if I still suspect the miniseries isn’t as violent as the source material.)

Hazel is left wounded after the events of the last episode, but there’s little time to rest – one of their own has been captured by the rabbits of Efrafa, a brutal neighboring warren ruled by the tyrannous General Woundwart. Knowing they can’t take on the vicious Efrafa warriors in head-to-head combat, a rescue plot is devised to free both their captured friend and the warren’s does, and Hazel’s rival Bigwig infiltrates Efrafa in order to carry it out.

This is a good episode for John Boyega’s Bigwig. Bigwig is a natural bruiser and cunning isn’t his strong suit, so it’s a challenge for him to pretend to be an unthreatening, lost rabbit in search of a new warren. There are plenty of tense moments and close calls. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the bar scene from Inglourious Basterds or anything, but it held my attention.

I also like the story of the enslaved does at Efrafa, led by Anne-Marie Duff’s Hyzenthlay. There’s a nice tension between those who still push back against their captors/hope for freedom and those who’ve been beaten into submission. The captured rabbit from Watership Down adds an interesting dynamic to the mix, as someone who really doesn’t know what they’ve just gotten themselves into. Plus, I appreciate that the does have a role in their own attempted rescue.

That said, the episode is pretty light on Peter Capaldi. Kehaar makes a very brief appearance here. Just long enough to let you know that Kehaar is still kind of a selfish bastard, basically. This bird has zero sense of reciprocity, and I think he kind of enjoys yanking the rabbits’ chain.

Other Doctor Lives: Watership Down: Episode 2 – “The Raid” (2018)

Another Doctor, another miniseries. We’re following Peter Capaldi this time around, although I’m not positive how many episodes he’ll be featured in – it appears that the entire voluminous cast is credited for every episode, and I already discovered that Capaldi isn’t in episode 1. But for now, let’s get started.

A group of rabbits, led by All-Around-Decent-Guy Protagonist Hazel, have left their warren after Hazel’s little brother has a prophetic dream of death and destruction. They’ve arrived at Watership Down, where they’ll make their new home, but there’s only one doe among them and they know they’ll need a greater gender balance to survive. Hazel hesitantly leads a raid on a nearby farm to liberate their does, while another subset of the group gets more than they bargained for investigating a nearby warren called Efrafa.

I know I read the book at some point, but it was a long time ago and I think I was a little too young at the time to really get it. I just remember that it’s about a lot of rabbits with adorable names who spend much of their time dealing with inter-/intrawarren power struggles, there’s all kinds of rabbit mythology, and it’s incredibly violent. As such, my memories of the book don’t give me much to go on as to what’s ahead other than a vague notion that this animated miniseries (a Netflix original) appears to be pulling its punches on some of the violence. Certainly, violent things happen, but we usually “cut away” before the critical moment, and I feel like we probably ought to have seen at least one dead rabbit by now.

The animation, in my view, suffers under the same issue that The Lion King reboot did. Going for more realistic-looking CGI instead of a more stylized animation (CGI or 2D – doesn’t matter) presents two problems. First, there are serious limits to how well the rabbits can emote onscreen, and while the voice cast gives it their all, the effect is muted when the animation isn’t matching what they’re putting out. Second, most of the rabbits basically look alike, and unlike The Lion King, there are a ton of them with prominent roles to try and keep track of. Even two episodes in, I rarely know who’s onscreen until I recognize the actors’ voices.

At least there, we have plenty to work with. This cast is almost comically stuffed with talented British actors. Leading the pack is James McAvoy as Hazel, an everyrabbit who’s doing his best to hold things together in the face of enormous odds on all sides. We’ve also got Nicholas Hoult (who I’ve seen in all kinds of things now but who I love best as Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road) as Hazel’s little brother Fiver and John Boyega as Bigwig, an alpha-rabbit-type who keeps challenging Hazel’s leadership. And then, you ready? Because this cast features Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, Olivia Colman, Mackenzie Crook (Gareth from the U.K. version of The Office,) Anne-Marie Duff (Fiona from the original Shameless,) Freddie Fox (who played the titular character in a good adaptation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood,) Daniel Kaluuya, Rosamund Pike, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Mr. Eko from Lost.) Phew!

And where’s Peter Capaldi in all this? As you can see, he’s one of the few actors not playing a rabbit. Instead, he’s Kehaar, a bird that the group comes upon and tries to enlist in their search for more does. Kehaar gives off Big Tool Energy in all his scenes, making petty demands of the rabbits while having no intention of doing anything that doesn’t help himself. In the role, Capaldi does a fine job of making Kehaar delightfully terrible.

First impressions:

Accent Watch

Scottish. So Scottish.

Recommend?

In General – Not necessarily. The excellent voice cast is turning in good work, in my view, for not a whole lot of reward, and even though I don’t remember much of the book, I can’t shake the feeling that this miniseries isn’t doing it justice.

Peter Capaldi – Possibly. I’m getting a kick out of selfish, irritable Kehaar so far. We’ll see how much Capaldi ends up being in it altogether.

Warnings

Lots of violence against rabbits, disturbing images, and strong thematic elements.