When I first heard about this series I was hopeful. I mean
to tell the story of Long John Silver before he lost his leg and went looking
for Treasure Island seemed like an inventive story that had the potential to
make for a rip roaring time. Unfortunately that isn’t the case with the results
on view here. Instead I felt more like they were trying to insert present day
concepts into past history.
While the story of Silver was a fictional one the times
written about were not. I would say that I don’t understand why the makers of
this chose to ignore that and go with contemporary bits and pieces but I do
know. It’s all about marketing and polls or at least what they think the
results of those would be. Maybe it’s just the crowd I hang out with but I
don’t have any friends clamoring for yet another cable show that features
gratuitous amounts of skin and bloodshed while lacking in a decent story to
carry them along.
The story features the crew of a pirate ship ruled by
Captain Flint (Toby Stephens), a cut throat pirate if there ever was one and
opens with their ransacking of a ship on the high seas. On board this ship is a
young man by the name of John Silver (Luke Arnold), a familiar name but far
removed from the stories we all know and love. Silver is on board the ship and
taking a cue from the ship’s cook identifies himself as that position so as to
stave off being killed. Recruited to the life of a pirate things seem to be
fine for Silver. After landing on Nassau, the island home of the pirates and
their crews, he is tossed into bed with a group of prostitutes and left until
morning.
Unbeknownst to Captain Flint, Silver took a page from the
real cook before seeing to his demise, a page from the captured captain’s
logbook that identifies where a long lost and incredibly large treasure is
located. It is this page that the Flint is trying to find as well as the
treasure itself. In a revealing moment Flint tell his trusted mate that the
reason he wants this treasure is to barter for the lives of his men. He’s intelligent
enough to see the future and knows that being a pirate limits the chances of a
long life. With this treasure he would have the means to bargain for the lives
of his men and the chance for all to live as free men.
But there is much skullduggery going on in this show,
sometimes to the point of making it difficult to watch and retain. It unravels
at a snail’s pace which is odd for what one would consider to be a show in the
action/adventure genre. The action is relatively rare at first here. The story
that unfolds does so in bits and pieces but never enough to truly satisfy per
episode.
On the whole I won’t say that this series truly stinks but
it does leave a lot to be desired. More action would be the first
recommendation I would add to the series. The second thing is to step away from
the new cable TV standard which is to insert sex into every series not on
broadcast television. More often than not it adds little to the story and slows
things down. Here we have it as well as the new trend which is girl on girl
sex. Perhaps that was considered bold and daring 20 years ago but these days it’s
becoming just something to toss in to try and tell people you’re edgy without
really being so.
I know I’ll go back and give this a try again someday down
the road. But for the moment with all of the choices and options of things out
there to watch this one is low on my list.
No comments:
Post a Comment