Musketeers

[ladyofastolat]

Anyone else watching the BBC Musketeers series? I've seen hardly any talk about it online.

I was a huge fan of the book series when I was 11 or so, but they made it very clear that this series wasn't an adaptation of the books, but an episodic TV series loosely based on the characters and setting. It therefore gave me exactly what I was expecting, and I'm enjoying it quite a lot. There's no hint of fannish obsessiveness, but I look forward to each new episode, which we both happily heckle and enjoy very much.

I love the jolly theme tune. I think all theme tunes should include a chorus of rowdy Musketeers shouting "HEY!" in the background. It is, however, annoyingly earwormy. What is it about Musketeer-inspired TV shows and earwormy theme tunes? (Note that I am now moving swiftly on before mentioning the notorious worst offender, lest it haunt the ears of my readers for the rest of the week.)

Some of the newspapers reviews amused me. The reviewer in one dignified broadsheet was very sneery about the liberties it had taken with the original story, chief of which seemed to be that Athos got drunk (SHOCK!) and Aramis had affairs with married women (HORROR!). Dumas would be shocked, shocked, he said, thus proving that he has never read the book in question. It reminded me of all those A Song of Ice and Fire "book purists" who were utterly outraged that the TV series had made Renly and Loras gay, and were convinced that GRRM would be equally horrified at this change made to canonically straight characters.

And the historical setting isn't quite as bad as a published edition of the book I came across a few weeks ago. It was a very simplified retelling for children, and the first sentence was something like, "In the year 1678..."

Ooh, half my icons have vanished. They claim to be there, but aren't. I wonder where they've gone...

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

We're watching it. Like the show, love the theme tune. This puts it on an equal footing with Hawaii 5-0.

Particularly like the actors who play Athos and Porthos. Oh, and that bloke who plays Richelieu - I'm sure I recognise him from something else...

I still can't get past seeing Athos as a St Bernard though.

[mific.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm - eye candy! Richlieu's played by Peter Capaldi.

Icon

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I'm now struggling to remember if I missed the appearance in the Musketeers of Cayne the transdimensional dunnyman. I expect he was there; he is, as we discovered, in everything.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think it's great. And OK, I was never a great fan of the books (I read the first one several times, but I am not sure I ever read The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later) but the feel seems about right somehow. Maybe I should try the Vicomte after all.

It sounds like that reviewer remembers it even less than me though....

Also: I got the muskehounds earworm anyway, damnyou *shakes fist*

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I loved the first book, and according to the handwritten inscription inside, the second one was "my joint favourite book, June 1982." It took me a long time to track down all 3 parts of the final book, and I never loved it in quite the same way. (This being back in the days when finding an out-of-print book involved months or years of scouring secondhand bookshops and hoping to get lucky. I very occasionally miss those days - mostly for intense delight of finally finding your quarry - but only very occasionally.)

Such is the power of my current Musketeers earworm that it is still there despite you uttering that Dread Name.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Out of print books... so true I do not regret those days. For I have just downloaded all three onto my kindle for free though how long it will be before I actually come to read them is another matter!

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Argh, yes, memories of long searching here also - Louise de la Valliere eluded me for ages before finally being tracked down in a dusty multi-floored second-hand book shop. I felt it was worth it though; I think the final book appealed at the time to my taste for tragic endings and heroic deaths, in much the same way as Rupert of Hentzau (sequel to The Prisoner of Zenda) did (I sobbed for hours after finishing it) - I'm not at all sure I would appreciate them in the same way now! I much prefer happy endings (after suitable amounts of angst, h/c etc of course) these days!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I've gone off sad endings, too. When I was a teenager, I loved to sob over a tragic tale of star-crossed lovers. Now I very much dislike sad endings. I feel quite guilty for the 2 or 3 sad endings that I subjected my readers to back in my early days of fanfic. I feel even more guilty for the ambiguous endings that I subjected them to in several more stories.

[bookwormsarah.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched it, but I remember the first time I realised there was a lot more to the story than the Muskahounds and my children's abridged edition made out. So much adultery! Juliet married to D'Artagnion's landlord, and he only knew her for a few days! Heads chopped off! Great fun.

[tigerfort.livejournal.com]

I'm also watching and enjoying. And thinking that the Angel Islington makes an excellent Richelieu :)

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

I haven't got round to watching but I will.

Dog Tanion will be a very, very hard act to follow, though...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I grew up with the Three Musketeers on The Banana Splits.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I'm watching it.It took me a while to get into and not to confuse the characters, but I quite enjoy it.An enjoyable way to spend a Sunday evening with that and Call the Midwife.

[skordh.livejournal.com]

We're watching it and enjoying it...

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I've watched two episodes, still can't tell Athos from Aramis, have not seen nearly enough Richelieu, and have yet to care even remotely about any of the characters. I can see it is clever, but it just makes me feel humourless, when I know I actually have a decent sense of humour. I should probably watch another episode to figure out why, but I keep getting distracted. It's weird how many shows that my entire friendslist loves leave me (and malaheed) completely cold. There must be some common factor, but I don't know what it is!

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

What is it about Musketeer-inspired TV shows and earwormy theme tunes? (Note that I am now moving swiftly on before mentioning the notorious worst offender, lest it haunt the ears of my readers for the rest of the week.)

...and of course that comment was precisely calculated to do exactly what you profess you hoped not to do! Curse you, LoA *shakes fist impotently at the screen*

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

And of course, by replying to that comment, you've now guaranteed that I'm now infected with that ear worm, too, so you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that you have had your revenge. :-D

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

As Skordh says, we are enjoying this too. I appreciated the way the credits say something like "based on characters created by Alexandre Dumas" rather than claiming to be something it isn't. Having initially watched a trailer, I thought the line about "he knows the musketeers' motto - every man for himself!" perfectly summed up the approach this series was taking, so as you said, I could go into it expecting precisely what it was offering without fear of disappointment. In fact it is better than expected - after watching the most recent one we have seen (we're a bit behind with the i-playering) about the Court of Miracles, Skordh turned to me and said, "you know, I think this isn't so-bad-it's-good, it's actually - good!"

Also, yes, the theme tune and credits sequence is great!