Atlantis - New BBC Series

[Deckerd]

I thought it was great fun. Much less irritating dialogue than appeared in Merlin and Robin Hood. I suppose because Jason is from modern day, they didn't need to force the point and as a result produced much more natural dialogue.

I like the way these shows are pitched so that there is a beginning, a middle and an end already sketched out before it gets commissioned. I also like the way the cast and crew stick to this. The cast of Merlin were offered another season and turned it down because the story was coming to its scheduled end. The makers of many of the initially very good US TV series that later became utterly dull should take note.

 

[Kelthaz]

Hey, I've got an idea. Let's ditch Jason. He's such a boring goody-good with his oh-so-special "destiny" crap and he's dragging the show down. Season two can be a retool that focuses on the continuing adventures of reluctant hero Hercules and his wacky sidekick, Pythagoras.

 

[Starkers]

He also seems to have super powers.

I dunno, two episodes in its likeable enough but ultimately a bit forgettable. I know show's take time but with Merlin, for example, it was clear there was something good right from the off (down in part to Merlin and Arthur's chemistry).

Atlantis on the other hand...it's just so generic. Swords, check: Ghostly forests, check: Cgi monsters, check: Chases through the streets involving stalls full of fruit being knocked over, check: Hero with a destiny, check: Inscrutable mentor figure, Check:

I could go on. I realise that for the timeslot you're never going to get Game of Thrones, and that Merlin was probably way better than it had any right to be, but I did expect something more original from the Beeb than this.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I could go on. I realise that for the timeslot you're never going to get Game of Thrones

Thank heaven for small mercies.

 

[Starkers]

I could go on. I realise that for the timeslot you're never going to get Game of Thrones

Thank heaven for small mercies.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Not as shite as Robin Hood, definitely as much of a horrendous mashup of stories as Merlin, but less offensive somehow. Normally I hate the dicking around with history (especially with phrases like "firing arrows") but I'm actually willing to let this one slide on the grounds that I can rationalise it as clearly being the dying hallucination of modern Jason's brain in the moments of his sub imploding. Therefore it's all from the half-remembered movies and stuff in his head...

And, yeah, I immediately though Robert Baratheon as Hercules as well, though I really only watched it cos Sid was in it!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Not as shite as Robin Hood, definitely as much of a horrendous mashup of stories as Merlin, but less offensive somehow.

Funny, RevdKathy had the opposite response. She thinks because the Arthur cycle has been told and retold in so many different versions throughout history it's not so hard to swallow but because this isn't only Greek myth but includes actually real historical characters it's more questionable.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

The ancient Greeks had numerous versions of many myths so it's not important to me. Even including real people such as Pythagoras is no big deal, although he lived a thousand years after the Minoan civilization bit the dust at the end of the Bronze Age. I was more annoyed with the movie Troy dicking with "The Iliad" and killing off Agamemnon. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus must have been overjoyed at having their dirty work done for them.

 

[Deckerd]

Not as shite as Robin Hood, definitely as much of a horrendous mashup of stories as Merlin, but less offensive somehow.

Funny, RevdKathy had the opposite response. She thinks because the Arthur cycle has been told and retold in so many different versions throughout history it's not so hard to swallow but because this isn't only Greek myth but includes actually real historical characters it's more questionable.

The title alone gives them licence to be as creative as they like.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Not as shite as Robin Hood, definitely as much of a horrendous mashup of stories as Merlin, but less offensive somehow.

Funny, RevdKathy had the opposite response. She thinks because the Arthur cycle has been told and retold in so many different versions throughout history it's not so hard to swallow but because this isn't only Greek myth but includes actually real historical characters it's more questionable.

The title alone gives them licence to be as creative as they like.

Well Atlantis is a specific legend, but the premise that he's fallen through a space hole and ended up in an alternate world gives it the license to do it's own thing, at least in my view.

 

[Starkers]

They can be as creative as they like, I don't mind them mixing their myths, I just think beyond that they haven't been creative enough about the bricks and mortar of the show.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I like Lonemagpie's theory that it's the hallucination of a dying man-- that would be very dark for Saturday evening TV.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

They can be as creative as they like, I don't mind them mixing their myths, I just think beyond that they haven't been creative enough about the bricks and mortar of the show.

They've stayed to close to the Merlin formula, doesn't mean it's not fun it just doesn't feel like a different show. Hopefully it'll carve out its own identity.

 

[Starkers]

They can be as creative as they like, I don't mind them mixing their myths, I just think beyond that they haven't been creative enough about the bricks and mortar of the show.

They've stayed to close to the Merlin formula, doesn't mean it's not fun it just doesn't feel like a different show. Hopefully it'll carve out its own identity.

Thats true, and I'm enjoying By Any Means which is essentially Hustle (only less fun) and which apparently took four people to create, including the creator of Hustle, despite the fact that its essentially just Hustle!

The Medusa bit was interesting at least.

 

[Deckerd]

Atlantis is a legend. You can't call it specific since it has no basis in history.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Atlantis is a legend. You can't call it specific since it has no basis in history.

Does so...

 

[DalekJim]

I caught the first episode. Standard no-effort BBC drama. Even Merlin had more spark than this.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I like Lonemagpie's theory that it's the hallucination of a dying man-- that would be very dark for Saturday evening TV.

It's not going to be their plan, it's just what I have to think in order to not throw things at the TV...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Not as shite as Robin Hood, definitely as much of a horrendous mashup of stories as Merlin, but less offensive somehow.

Funny, RevdKathy had the opposite response. She thinks because the Arthur cycle has been told and retold in so many different versions throughout history it's not so hard to swallow but because this isn't only Greek myth but includes actually real historical characters it's more questionable.

Except that even a lot of historical characters had a wide variety of dafter legends and myths made up about them afterwards... (says a guy who just wrote a book including a chapter about Virgil being cast as a necromancer in medieval times).

But, yeah, it's just taking it as the modern guy's dying hallucination (all the myths jumbled up in his brain) that lets me accept it...

 

[Starbreaker]

The dad from Still Standing? Whaaaaaat?