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The Musketeers (BBC)


Tony Soprano

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I just came across a trailer for a new BBC series called The Musketeers. It's based on...you guessed it, The Three Musketeers.



Starring Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu, the series will debut in January.




That actually looks pretty damn good. I'll definitely keep my eye on this, hopefully the trailer's quality didn't deceive me.


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The trailer does look fairly promising. There have been a lot of adaptations of The Three Musketeers, but although they've often been entertaining I wouldn't say any of them that I've seen has really been a definitive adaptation. I'm doubtful this one will be the definitive adaptation either, but I think doing it is a TV series rather than a film does have potential for a a bit more depth in the story than some of the film adaptations.


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I always insist that the Richard Lester films are the definitive version but that trailer looks good. I feared it would be something Merlinesque but that trailer sold me. The question is, when will it air in America?


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I always insist that the Richard Lester films are the definitive version but that trailer looks good. I feared it would be something Merlinesque but that trailer sold me. The question is, when will it air in America?

It might not be something Merlinesque, but it definitely looks like something Robin Hoodesque. Which isn't better at all.

Not for me.

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I hope it lives up to the promise. Not that I'll know for a long time since it won't be playing here -- or ever unless it goes to PBS or netflix. It might, might it not? Considering the line they're walking between period dirt, violence and license (for those who are licensed to fornicate without peril) and excessive depictions of same. A spokesperson I read stated that this is supposed to be adult in content, but something that can be watched en famille.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I thought it was pretty bad, to be honest. The look of it was nice but the plot was odd (they seem to be doing a story of the week very loosely based off the novel) and all the witty banter fell flat I thought.


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I got a tad over-excessively angry at the court scene. At no point does Athos or the Captain just ask the question "Why the fuck would you tell your name to someone just before you murder someone and leave them as a witness" or you know the fact that he was lounging around in the fucking barracks when the murders at the Inn occured


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I got a tad over-excessively angry at the court scene. At no point does Athos or the Captain just ask the question "Why the fuck would you tell your name to someone just before you murder someone and leave them as a witness" or you know the fact that he was lounging around in the fucking barracks when the murders at the Inn occured

Yeah, that was just a stupid way to frame anybody. And why Athos specifically? Why not just have the crimes be committed by people in musketeer uniforms to discredit the whole unit (though of course historically there were two units: one for the king and one for Richelieu)?

I also get needlessly annoyed by adaptations portraying Richelieu as the most sinister villain. He isn't a nice person in the novel, but he has reasons beyond being evil for what he does. The queen geuinely has an inappropriate relationship with Buckingham, afer all.

And speaking of which: setting it two years after the murder of Buckingham and the siege of La Rochelle means these won't feature in this series at all, I guess.

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Yeah, that was just a stupid way to frame anybody. And why Athos specifically? Why not just have the crimes be committed by people in musketeer uniforms to discredit the whole unit (though of course historically there were two units: one for the king and one for Richelieu)?

I also get needlessly annoyed by adaptations portraying Richelieu as the most sinister villain. He isn't a nice person in the novel, but he has reasons beyond being evil for what he does. The queen geuinely has an inappropriate relationship with Buckingham, afer all.

And speaking of which: setting it two years after the murder of Buckingham and the siege of La Rochelle means these won't feature in this series at all, I guess.

Agreed, they might expand on it in later episodes but all the motivation I got off the Cardinal in this episode was "mwah haha - look how fun it is to be evil".

Also Red Guard guy - top tip don't tell the baddy who has all the power in the situation that if you blabbed then he'd be up shits creek. Its almost a form of assisted suicide, just profess undying loyalty and leave it at that

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I got a tad over-excessively angry at the court scene. At no point does Athos or the Captain just ask the question "Why the fuck would you tell your name to someone just before you murder someone and leave them as a witness" or you know the fact that he was lounging around in the fucking barracks when the murders at the Inn occured

What I found odd is that nobody takes note of the fact that the bad "Musketeer" never shows his face but keeps telling everyone he's Athos... Where's the sense in that?

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I thought it was OK, it was definitely an improvement on the pilot episodes of similar BBC shows like Robin Hood, Merlin or Atlantis. I think the biggest problem so far is that there have been so many Three Musketeers adaptations that it's struggling to really stand out compared to them, it's not been very distinctive so far. Hopefully future episodes will improve on that.



Yeah, that was just a stupid way to frame anybody. And why Athos specifically? Why not just have the crimes be committed by people in musketeer uniforms to discredit the whole unit (though of course historically there were two units: one for the king and one for Richelieu)?


I think Richelieu said that it was Milady's idea, and she has her own reasons for targeting Athos.



Also Red Guard guy - top tip don't tell the baddy who has all the power in the situation that if you blabbed then he'd be up shits creek. Its almost a form of assisted suicide, just profess undying loyalty and leave it at that


It was a stupid thing to say but he was probably doomed whatever he said, I doubt Richelieu was going to let him walk out of there alive.


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