BBC's The Musketeers Season 1 Review

One of the most interesting shows we got to see this winter was BBC’s The Musketeers. There are few people that don't know about Alexander Dumas legendary tale of the 3 musketeers and even fewer that don't like the story. After the horrible movie we got to see a few years ago (The Three Musketeers 2011) I didn't think that somebody is going to touch the franchise for a while. I guess BBC doesn't really care about the past, the idea was pitched to them and they went for it.

English: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (illustration of the Appleton edition). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Just like HBO BBC knows how to prepare the groundwork for a show like The Musketeers. Everything in the show looked authentic. if it's the costumes, the streets, the palaces but most of all BBC revived a completely new sword fighting stile, something that didn't change in all 10 episodes of the first season.

Video: BBC's The Musketeers: Trailer BBC's season one of The Musketeers with Luke Pasqualino, Santiago Cabrera, Tom Burke and Howard Charles

Some of the actors that BBC used for the lead roles just didn't click, I’m talking about: Athos, Porthos and Constance for some reason they didn’t work for me.
Athos - was supposed to be a sharp veteran fighter that tried to lead his 3 companions in their adventures. When in fact he looked like a small kid that was acting out like a cool tough guy. Tom Burke is a good actor and he did his part in the show the best way he could but visually he didn’t look the part and that in my mind hurt the show.

Porthos - this is going to sound racist but what’s the deal with shoving black man in lead character roles when the only excuse for it is political correctness. I doubt it whether Alexander Dumas thought of Porthos as a black guy. So this casting turned to be just wrong.

Constance - This girl was too loud and too outspoken for her own good, I understand that the creators of the show wanted to make Constance the first feminist of that era but the girl was completely out of control.

Enough with the bad stuff, I really liked the casting of D'Artagnan. Luke Pasqualino made a great job as D'Artagnan and most importantly Luke made the character believable. So was Aramis, Santiago Cabrera’s Aramis looked like a sharp but silly at times womanizer. Aramis gave us at times entertaining comic reliefs in times that the show really needed them. Another 3 characters that were spot on were Milady, King Louis and Treville. Cardinal Richelieu looked decent but it’s hard to say that he made the role unforgettable.

The first season had some ups and had some downs but overall it was a fun experience. The finale of the show with Milady and Athos looked interesting and gives us something to look forward for in season 2 of The Musketeers. The angle with Aramis and the Quinn does look promising as well. Although Quinn Anne (Alexandra Dowling) gave one of the stiffest performances I have ever seen (not in a good way). Other than that I’m good with everything that BBC will through at us in The Musketeers season 2 in 2015.

The Musketeers Season 1 DVD

Musketeers [Blu-ray]

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About Sasha Shapiro

Sasha is the founder and editor of Cool Reviews Rule. He is very passionate about Movies, TV Shows and some Books. His favorite genres are: Action, Fantasy, History, Horror, Sci-fi and Adventure.
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