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ATLANTIS

BBC1

Three heroes


  1. The Earth Bull
  2. A Girl By Any Other Name
  3. A Boy Of No Consequence
  4. Twist Of Fate
  5. White Lies
  6. The Song Of The Sirens
  7. The Rules Of Engagement
  8. The Furies
  9. Pandora's Box




Jason - Jack Donnelly

Hercules - Mark Addy

Pythagoras - Robert Emms

Ariadne - Aiysha Hart

The Oracle - Juliet Stevenson

Medusa - Jemima Rooper

Minos - Alexander Siddig




OTHER MYTHICAL SHOWS
Merlin
Mists of Avalon
The Dresden Files
Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire
Jason and the Argonauts
The Sword of Xanten




The Earth Bull - first transmitted 28th September 2013

Jason's father disappeared on a deep sea dive and so he recreates that submersible mission only to find himself dragged through an underwater portal into the world of Ancient Atlantis. There he falls in with the boasting drunkard Hercules and the timid mathmetician Pythagoras. Together, they must take on the Minotaur in its maze.

ATLANTIS is the BBC's big budget replacement for MERLIN on a Saturday night and it certainly has a sense of scale about it. The setting of Atlantis is rendered on a large canvas with wide, spectacular landscapes and remarkable sets and design work.

Sadly, though, it all goes a bit downhill from there. Apart from the confusing and inexplicable modern prologue, the story is a rather dull retread of the Minotaur tale. Yes, the Minotaur itself is impressively rendered when finally it appears, but the rest is old hat indeed. Good enough for younger viewers, yes, but without the spark and fizz and wit and charm that MERLIN beguiled us with.

Jack Donnelly makes for a pretty, but also pretty dull, lead in Jason and since the show rests on his character's shoulders that's a bit of a problem. Mark Addy does the best that he can with the material that he's given, but poor Robert Emms isn't even given that oppportunity since the show doesn't really seem to know what to do with him. Love interest Aiysha Hart is spectacularly wooden.

As an opening episode, this does not bode well for the show, but it is only an opening episode and things could get better, considerably better.

Written by Howard Overman
Directed by Justin Molotnikov

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A Girl By Any Other Name - first transmitted 5th October 2013

The trio agree to try and save a girl who has been taken by the acolytes of Dionysus, women who have violent apelike creatures at their command.

The addition of Jemima Rooper to the show's cast can only be a good thing, but she is given so little to do in this episode that she doesn't get to improve things greatly. Neither are the ape creatures, who make for a believable threat, but never actually get to do anything serious.

In the end, this is a damp squib of an episode that doesn't even have a lot in the way of incidental pleasures to make up for its failings in other departments. The jokes fall flat and the action isn't all that great.

Written by Howard Overman
Directed by Justin Molotnikov

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A Boy Of No Importance - first transmitted 12th October 2013

After aiding an old man against an arrogant noble Jason, Hercules and Pythagoras are sentenced to die unless they can leap the bulls in the arena. There are people plotting to see that they can't.

Borrowing from GLADIATOR (right down to the noble black man and the benign slave master), this episode passes the time , but never rises above the mediocre. The idea of having to leap over the bull is a good one, but the characters are introduced as having no possible way of doing so and by the end are all sasoned bull leapers without any outside help and precious little training. It might have worked better if they had come up with ways that they could help each other acheive the feat, rather than just finding that they could all just do it.

That said, Medusa's invasion of the Queen's chambers to take away her voodoo doll (really) is quite tense. Even so, the show needs to do better than this if it is to appeal to any but the younger members of the audience.

Written by Howard Overman
Directed by Justin Molotnikov

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Twist Of Fate - first transmitted 19th October 2013

They boys find a baby in the woods and save the boy, but it turns out that the baby is more important than they could have guessed and soon all the guards in Atlantis are after them.

Three Atlanteans and a baby? Really? There isn't a single baby cliche that is not trotted out in this uninspired farce and not one of them is made to feel any fresher or even funny. The men are completely useless at child-rearing whilst the unwed woman is a natural.

There is a little interest in the story behind the baby's abandonment and his eventual identity, but if this is the best that the show can come up with then the MERLIN team may prove to be one-hit wonders.

Written by Richard McBrien
Directed by Alice Troughton

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White Lies - first transmitted 26th October 2013

Ariadne's disgraced brother is alive and Jason agrees to take her to see him. There are those who would see them all dead first.

ATLANTIS hits a new low with this dull as ditchwater story that focuses on the politics of the palace, but fails to do anything interesting with it at all. There is a lot of walking and talking (and yawning amongst the audience). Centering a story around the two most wooden actors in the cast also doesn't make things better.

The so-called 'comedy' beetle storyline is hopeless no matter how hard Mark Addy tries to sell it.

Written by Howard Overman
Directed by Alice Troughton

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The Song Of The Sirens - first transmitted 2nd November 2013

Hercules decides to get a witch to cast a love spell on Medusa. It works, but makes her very ill and only Jason can match the witch's price.

After the deathly dull story last week, we get more of the same with this uneventful story. Yes, Hercules is turned into a pig, but that only provides a few lame gags. Yes, there's a wicked witch who can throw people about, but that's all she does. Yes Pythagoras is in the show, but still has absolutely nothing to do.

The show is sinking under the weight of its awfully banal storylines and doing it a lot less dramatically than Atlantis legendarily managed it.

Written by Lucy Watkins
Directed by Declan O'Dwyer

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The Rules Of Engagement - first transmitted 9th November 2013

Ariadne is to be wed and her fiance is to fight in a brutal tournament in which people are regularly maimed or killed. Jason decides to enter.

There is plenty of fighting as pairs of men duel with a single knife between them. The fights can be a bit hard-hitting for the time slot, but not too much because of the time slot. The subplot of the Queen deciding to take matters into her own hands is not all that exciting, but the revenge that she takes on Ariadne for standing up to her is pleasingly heartless.

Unfortunately, there is just too much here that is predictable and concentrating on the two lovers, who also happen to be the least interesting people in the show, it suffers.

Written by Richard McBrien
Directed by Declan O'Dwyer

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The Furies - first transmitted 16th November 2013

The trio are paid to accompany a cargo of gold across the desert. They are in the company of Pythagoras' brother and a man who may have killed their father. One summons up the indestructible Furies to kill the other.

Whirling cyclones of sand, the Furies are impressive when on screen, but do so very little that you have to wonder why anyone is scared of them. Stay in amongst the rocks and you'll be fine. It's a pity because they could, and should, have been so much more.

Instead, the story concentrates on Pythagoras' brother, whose sudden appearance could be forgiven were it not for the link to the murder of their father and the potential killer who just happens to be on the same caravan. To say that the coincidences pile up is to understate the case and the whole background is muddled, so that the final confession has little power and everything from there on is predictable.

At least for one Pythagoras has some purpose in the plot.

Written by Julian Jones
Directed by Alice Troughton

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Pandora's Box - first transmitted 30th November 2013

A moneylender wants Pandora's Box, which resides in the Underworld. He tasks Hercules with recovering it, using Medusa's life as the prize.

A trip into the very heart of Hell really ought to be a little more challenging than this. True, Hades is very well realised with its bruised blue hues and some striking imagery in the shape of the Ferryman and even the ridiculous scorpion man who is kind of ripped off directly from THE MUMMY films. The thing is that Jason and Hercules are only required to walk a lot. There aren't any real challenges to them and it's all a bit dull and event-free.

Pythagoras, on the other hand, gets to do a lot of comedy running. A lot of comedy running. It wasn't that funny to begin with, but it gets very tedious by the end.

The only really successful thing about the episode is Medusa's fate, which doesn't actually come as that much of a surprise to anyone who has read their Greek myths, but is pretty well realised all the same. If only the rest of the show could live up to this.

Written by Howard Overman
Directed by Declan O'Dwyer

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