A series based on the real-life cases of the Pinkertons' National Detective Agency sounds like a good idea. Allan Pinkerton, here played by our own Angus MacFadyen, founded the first major detective firm in America, joined after the American Civil War by his rough and ready son William (Jacob Blair) and Kate Warne (Martha MacIsaac) as the first female detective, whose modern ways incline towards what we would term forensics.
A good premise alone does not a good series make, however. It needs decent writing, a fair cast and reasonable production values. This lacks two, and the third is compromised by the lack of the rest. This is Canadian, and we have to say that if Canada feels superior to its southern neighbour, it's not justified by the television they sell to us. You might expect Canada to try producing the likes of 'Mad Men', 'The Wire' and 'Breaking Bad', but this feels more like 'Bonanza' or 'The High Chaparral' with slightly less slush and more brutality. With a banal script and looking bizarrely like it was filmed on a hand-held camcorder by a tourist at a wild west show, the fascination was in watching the actors battle to gain even an ounce of verisimilitude. MacFadyen, who has presence and delivered some good performances in his back catalogue, sounds like he is putting on an accent even though Scottish is presumably second if not first nature.
Anachronisms are inevitable, no matter how small and despite all efforts at attention to detail, but the 'CSI 19th Century' franchise is much better served by 'Ripper Street', in the form of Captain Jackson, and even by Canada's own 'Murdoch Mysteries', which at least has charm and a modicum of tension, even if the female pathologist clearly races back and forth a hundred years between each episode. This Pinkertons tale of bushwhackers was curiously bloodless, and the buddy banter failed to establish any rapport between the characters. Crime and the Old West, on this occasion, are not a great combination.
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ReplyDeleteThis is such an accurate review. My husband has been watching this show on Netflix, and at first I thought it must be some sort of parody or joke due to the show's poor quality of writing, acting, and production. Having to endure this show is equal to visual and cognitive torture for me.
ReplyDeleteIt's a terrible show. Some truly horrendous writing and direction, inexcusable anachronisms, appalling inconsistencies,insidious PC revisionism, and two terrible lead characters. The Kate Warne character is particularly insufferable. I can't say I agree with the comment that the show looks like a tourist-shot camcorder video. I think that criticism is inaccurate and unfair. And if MacFayden ever delivered solid work in his back catalogue I haven't seen it. I think he's the worst overactor since Gabby Hayes, and his shameless hamming makes this show reek of a rendering plant. This mercifully short-lived series even did a clip show, a tired tv convention that was out of date decades ago. There is some solid work by some supporting actors and guest stars (particularly David Lawrence Brown) which is impressive considering the substandard material they had to work with. Canadian television does not have a good reputation and this is a prime example why. At least we had SCTV.
ReplyDeleteAbout :30 of her voice with her vocal fry was about all I could take - love period series but if women talked that way back then, pity the world...
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