'Atlantis' - BBC commissions new drama series helmed by JCapps & JMurphy

[gealach_ros]

BBCMediaCentre: 2013 BBC Drama Commissions
Atlantis13 x 45 series, created and written by Howard Overman (Misfits, Dirk Gently, Vexed, Merlin) for Saturday nights this Autumn on BBC One

Comments

[burntcopper]

echoing a lot of other people - I went 'ooo, misfits!' then went 'oh shit, they're going to completely fail to push through for anything interesting, constantly go one step forward two steps back. and then they'll try for 'adult' ...fuck.'

if we're lucky on casting, we'll get great chemistry, with trying to shove plot and ships through that're horribly forced and rushed. oh, and inconsistency. plus utter gems of eps that they then never follow through on. (eg, the arthur responsible for the druid massacre... and then still having magic being against the law when he got to be king.)

[gnimaerd]

blech. it just pisses me off that these two keep being rewarded for making BAD decisions.

On the one hand, Howard Overman is a pretty smart writer, and Misfits is far from perfect, but generally speaking it's better plotted than Merlin has been. If this were purely his baby, I'd give it a shot. On the other, JCapps and the Murph are on board and I SO do not trust them to be on board with anything and not eventually find a way to stunt, crash or otherwise wreck it. They've done it to literally every.other.show they've ever worked on, usually through sheer laziness or cowardice or (in Merlin's case) both, and with an extra special flavour of misogynistic heterosexism in there to boot.

My prediction: underused female characters who function almost entirely as dramatic props for the men without any agency of their own (unless they're evil), fucktonnes of queer baiting with no payoff ever and a plot device that stops progressing roughly around episode ten of the first season. PROVE ME WRONG, JCAPPS, PROVE ME WRONG.

[doylefan22]

A story about a legendary place where a young man arrives for adventure? How did they come up with that formula.... *headesk*

Also this seems thrown together VERY quickly to me.

[sforthewicked]

I'm feeling pretty insulted right now. I mean seriously... what's the deal with these guys and legends? First they go and fuck up the Arthurian legend, now they move on to greek mythology... What's next?
...they'll find new inventive ways to mess with Thor and Odin?

[arwyn_t]

I get the feeling that "Atlantis" will make us adore old Hercules' and Zena' treatment of Greek mythology, and we all know how *that* was...

Rolls eyes, hits head on desk...

[sforthewicked]

What makes you think I would ever again watch a show from those two producers?
Heaven forbid. I learn from my mistakes...

[arwyn_t]

I didn't mean I'll watch it, just that I'm sure they'll ruin Greek mythology just as they ruined the Arthurian legend. What Hercules and Zena did will be a tribute compared to that. ;)

[lamardeuse]

Oh, the irony - I was a huge fan of Stargate: Atlantis, and their PTB cared even less about the actors or about consistency of characterization than the Merlin PTB. Rock on.