By Helen Langdon
It’s a white Easter in pre-Revolutionary France, and d’Artagnan is now one of the musketeer gang. But ‘The Musketeers’ is still basically a crime drama, and so here’s the requisite undercover episode, with more twists and turns than shake your leather hat at.
It’s a white Easter in pre-Revolutionary France, and d’Artagnan is now one of the musketeer gang. But ‘The Musketeers’ is still basically a crime drama, and so here’s the requisite undercover episode, with more twists and turns than shake your leather hat at.
Where this episode shone was in its villain. We knew he was bad from the start, so no surprises there, even if d’Artagnan did forget the golden rule of never trust a man who can do magic. By releasing d’Artagnan, and releasing the other prisoners, it seemed at first that he was a more complicated character with the potential for sympathy. But did he just release d’Artagnan in order to use him? And were the prisoners just a diversion? We never find out exactly when Vadim figures out d’Artagnan’s plan, although it becomes pretty obvious once Vadim hands him a map with all of the plan’s details on it. And for once, given how blatantly obvious most of the plot twists are, it was nice to flip it around and have Vadim be a simple thief rather than pre-emptively starting the Reign of Terror.
The use of a baddie-of-the-week also means more complexity for Cardinal Richelieu. Yes, everyone knows he’s supposed to be the bad guy – he wears all black leather, as opposed to musketeer brown – but this episode allowed us to see he’s not got typically villainous motives. He’s not out to rule the country outright, but to maintain the monarchy and his influence over them. And although he might not be happy with the musketeers, he’s willing to cooperate with them when they have common goals. That’s not to say he trusts them to get the job done. He sends out the far more competent Milady to do it instead. Seriously, d’Artagnan managed to be spotted by some guards, ran himself into a dead end and only survived because she was stalking him. And then she escaped from the dead end in silence, because Milady is better.
The use of a baddie-of-the-week also means more complexity for Cardinal Richelieu. Yes, everyone knows he’s supposed to be the bad guy – he wears all black leather, as opposed to musketeer brown – but this episode allowed us to see he’s not got typically villainous motives. He’s not out to rule the country outright, but to maintain the monarchy and his influence over them. And although he might not be happy with the musketeers, he’s willing to cooperate with them when they have common goals. That’s not to say he trusts them to get the job done. He sends out the far more competent Milady to do it instead. Seriously, d’Artagnan managed to be spotted by some guards, ran himself into a dead end and only survived because she was stalking him. And then she escaped from the dead end in silence, because Milady is better.
Queen Anne had a bit more to do this week, although it did feel like she’d been handed the idiot ball beforehand in order to create drama. Firstly, she failed to notice two escaped prisoners creeping up on her while not hiding behind anything. Yes, there is a jailbreak going on right in front of her, but if you’re going to be Queen, you should pay more attention to potential threats to your safety. Then she stands in the middle of a firefight and just flails her hands about, until Aramis bore her to the ground and initiated the dangerous love affair of the series (what is it about Santiago Cabrera? Is it in his contract that every character he plays fall in love with the queen?). Just in case we’d failed to pick up on the subtle romance of lying down in the mud, the episode emphasised it with both Anne giving him a gift (which almost definitely won’t come back to bite them in the arse) and her slow-motion longing gazes after Aramis dives on top of a bomb.
Aramis, amongst the musketeers, is still getting the most development. In this episode he got all of the best lines, including the neat subversion: “He knows the musketeer motto. Every man for himself!” He also showed his masochistic tendencies with an avowal of loving violence in a woman. Porthos merely snuck around, being jovial. And it would be nice to see Athos do something other than lead and feel guilty for getting d’Artagnan into bad situations.
The directing style worked a little better this week, expanding the colour scheme out from the blues and browns the musketeers seemed destined to drown in. The use of torches in the catacombs scenes made for a disorientating fight, which worked well to mirror the characters’ confusion after being caught in an explosion. The costuming included fewer heaving bosoms; in fact, nearly all of the bosoms were covered up and Milady was flouncing around in clothes that looked far more expensive than anything belonging to the queen.
Next time! Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica shows up! The king plays with a model ship! Milady comes onto Constance! Porthos gets injured!
Aramis, amongst the musketeers, is still getting the most development. In this episode he got all of the best lines, including the neat subversion: “He knows the musketeer motto. Every man for himself!” He also showed his masochistic tendencies with an avowal of loving violence in a woman. Porthos merely snuck around, being jovial. And it would be nice to see Athos do something other than lead and feel guilty for getting d’Artagnan into bad situations.
The directing style worked a little better this week, expanding the colour scheme out from the blues and browns the musketeers seemed destined to drown in. The use of torches in the catacombs scenes made for a disorientating fight, which worked well to mirror the characters’ confusion after being caught in an explosion. The costuming included fewer heaving bosoms; in fact, nearly all of the bosoms were covered up and Milady was flouncing around in clothes that looked far more expensive than anything belonging to the queen.
Next time! Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica shows up! The king plays with a model ship! Milady comes onto Constance! Porthos gets injured!
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