Young Indy - worth watching?

[Captaindemotion]

True, it wasn't quite the same Indiana Jones, more a different character with the same name, but that's okay. It's not like I believed for a second that Sean Patrick Flanery would ever grow up into Harrison Ford.

See, I just don't get the point of that. I mean, it would be like making a SW prequel and casting as Obi-Wan Kenobi an actor who didn't resemble or sound like a young Alec Guinness or having an actor as Spock in the recent Star Trek movie who was nothing like Leonard Nimoy.

How about a Scotty who's nothing like James Doohan, a Sulu who's nothing like George Takei, a Pike who's nothing like Jeffrey Hunter, and a Sarek and Amanda who are nothing like Mark Lenard and Jane Wyatt? For that matter, Harrison Ford doesn't look much like Alec Baldwin, but he still took over the role of Jack Ryan. Naturally the priority is to find the best actor for the role. Physical resemblance is a bonus, not a requirement. Getting someone who looks or sounds right isn't enough if they don't have the talent or charisma you need.

That said, River Phoenix, who played young Indy in Last Crusade, looked and sounded uncannily like a young Harrison Ford (which also led to him playing Ford's son in The Mosquito Coast). So after having seen a young Indy who was so perfect, Flanery was admittedly somewhat harder to buy into. Had Phoenix not died tragically young, he might've been the star of this show, and it's hard not to judge Flanery in comparison to that.

I actually meant to refer to Phoenix in my original post, but forgot to! D'oh!

I agree that physical resemblance isn't entirely necessary but the new actor should capture the essence of the original. I don't regard the Jack Ryan recasting as being relevant any more than, say, the difference between the various James Bonds or Batmans (in the 1989 - 1997 movies) - there's no great continuity between any of them (e.g. Mrs Ryan was also recast, IIRC). I accept that the actors in the new Trek movie, Quinto aside, were hardly the spitting images of their predecessors, but they mostly did capture the essence of them (Urban especially). I singled out Spock because Quinto had to appear alongside Leonard Nimoy onscreen - had they not convinced as being (almost) the same man at different ages - e.g like Patrick Stewart and Tom Hardy in Nemesis - I think that would have done the movie damage.

I don't think Pegg did capture the essence of Doohan's character, as a matter of fact, and I did view his Scotty as the most disappointing of them. But at least that's merely one actor in an ensemble, recreating a role last seen onscreen almost two decades ago and first seen over 40 ago. When the lead in YIJ is playing a role who had been onscreen just a few years earlier and who is not only the lead but an iconic role, then to me it's just crazy that he never convinces you as being a younger version of the same person. Especially when Phoenix was so damn convincing in the same role, even when sharing a movie with Ford.

So I just couldn't get over that hurdle - though I might have had the series been more like the movies. All in all, I just don't see what it had to do with Indiana Jones (shrug).

 

[FPAlpha]

Loved it as a teenager though in hindsight there was much "small universe" syndrome where Indy constantly encounters famous and important people and maybe influences them a little so history happens as we know it.

I don't remember that much (so much crap get's re-aired but such good shows are only shown once ) but i remember

Spoiler: Indy Finale

him meeting a young Ho Chi Minh at the signing of the peace treaty after WW1 ended and learned that the foundations of the Indochine and Vietnam War were laid so far back then. Impressive stuff.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

I just couldn't get over that hurdle - though I might have had the series been more like the movies. All in all, I just don't see what it had to do with Indiana Jones (shrug).

I can definitely see how the Young Indy Chronicles might not appeal to Indy fans because of the different tone. But I'm not sure the problem is specific to Flannery.

To me, the lack of resemblance between Flannery and Ford (either looks or delivery) didn't much matter precisely because the TV series was such a different feel from the films. Overall, I think the issue has more to do with the writing for the character of Young Indy than it does with Flannery's performances (or even those of Corey Carrier -- though, as a younger actor, his work wasn't as strong as Flannery's).

Over the course of Young Indy series, the character of Young Indy was thrown into chapters which tried to emulate various pulp formulas -- and altered Indy's reactions to fit the formulas, rather than the other way around.

As a perfect example, think of how ludicrous the circumstances (and actions of Young Indy) are in "Espionage Escapades" as compared to, say, the seriousness of "Oganga" or "Winds of Change" -- which are very different from the sudsy "Tales of Innocence" or "Love's Sweet Song" installments.

In each of those episodes, there are buildling blocks toward the Indiana Jones of the films, but the episodes themselves have a Young Indy that is often inconsistent and occasionally contradictory. Quite unlike the very effective Young Indy vignette in The Last Crusade. Basically, I'd pin the blame more on the writing than the performance.

 

[DWF]

Had Phoenix not died tragically young, he might've been the star of this show, and it's hard not to judge Flanery in comparison to that.

That would have never been the case. Lucas initially went to Phoenix when he began to form the genesis of what eventually became Young Indy and Phoenix declined saying he didn't want to go to television.

Either way, having seen such an authentic Young Indy makes it harder to buy into Flanery in the role. I mean, he was fine as a series lead, I could just never believe he was the same person as the guy with the hat and whip in the movies.

But in many ways he wasn't the same person we saw in the movies, Indy by that time was a cynic and pretty world weary, the young Indy was still an idealist with a different view of the world.

It was an excellent series and it's a shame that it didn't quite catch on. And we would've met Belloq had the series continued in Indy's first search for the crystal skull.