Well I'm excited. I needed a show to fill the Merlin shaped hole.
I haven't watched the trailer yet but WHERE ARE THE GIRLS?
The BBC seem to be very coy about releasing information for the series. Here's all I have so far:
The show stars Robert Emms (War Horse, Kick-[censored] 2) as Pythagoras, Jack Donnelly (the white rabbit in Misfits) as Jason, Mark Addy (King Robert in Game Of Thrones) as Hercules, Jemima Rooper (Hex, Lost In Austen, A Sound Of Thunder) as Medusa, Aiysha Hart as Ariadne, Sarah Parrish (The Empress of the Racnoss in Doctor Who) as Pasiphae and Juliet Stephenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply) as The Oracle (poor oracles… they never get real names).
Atlantis, from the production team behind Merlin and developed for television by Howard Overman (creator of Misfits and the far-too-under-appreciated Dirk Gently TV series) will start airing on BBC One early this autumn.
I kept seeing this come up in latest posts and assumed it was discussion about Stargate Atlantis, so didn't bother stopping by, but, just found a couple of references on blogs I read and knitted the two together, so...yeah - don't judge a thread by its title..?
Anyway, I hope this is good. Did the guys behind Merlin do Misfits too, DO? Because that's what peaked my interest - Misfits was amazing and clever and funny all in one. If it ends up being more like Merlin and less like Misfits, though, I may cry. I know Merlin did it for many but it never did it for me (found it really boring, forced dialog, dragged out, and unforgivably bad special effects).
Can't believe Mark Addy's in it! Lol, playing a middle-aged Hercules or something.
If the main character's Jason...is this Jason of Argonauts fame? Or is the show going to be a mish-mash of Greek mythology?
Misfits is so clever, DO! You should get around to watching at least the first season. It's rude but it's just so well played by everyone involved and the story is great (I lost interest at about series three though - a major character leaves and was replaced by...a dodgy character I hated :P).
Meh, if Atlantis is like Merlin I'll probably tune out fairly quickly; though I know a lot of others will enjoy it.
Misifits is on my backlog list of series to watch, so I will get round to watching it at some point.
Its worth giving Atlantis a chance, but I agree it may not be to everyone's tastes.
11 years ago
Tue Sep 24 2013, 08:07pm
OK, we now have an air date!
The first show will be broadcast on Saturday 28th September at 8.25pm BST (a later time slot than Merlin, which means this show might be a bit more violent)
Not sure how many episodes are in this first series, but by my calculations they can only get 8 episodes in before Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary weekend on Saturday the 23rd of November
Edit: Atlantis starts on BBC America on November 23rd (no time slot as yet)
Also I've since found out that this first season has 13 episodes in total
I believe it came out last night! I will check it out. Hopefully the Misfits link will mean it's a good series!
S1 Ep1: The Earth Bull
Not a bad start to the series I suppose. Having Jason go through a portal from our time was somewhat unexpected, but it grated a little that he seemed to be quite settled in Atlantis. This is before realising that he was actually born there. That said, we have constant mentions that he’s an outsider, but for the most part he could be an outsider from another country, not another time. Jason could be making cultural references, like a time-dislodged John Crichton, but instead he mostly just raises an eyebrow when he recognises a famous name and doesn’t bat an eyelid when Ariadne tells him what he needs to do with the thread in the maze.
Jason's character is likeable, but I find Pythagoras to be a bit winy. The joke of Hercules being a large overweight middle-aged man who relies on story telling to get to his 'legendary' status is amusing at first, but could grate as the story continues. That said, it could be early days for both characters and I may yet grow to love them...
The sets and settings were suitably magnificent, though it wasn't quite the Atlantis I was expecting, and it would've been nice to see more of the Minotaur before it was killed.
However, we need to remember that the pilot of Merlin wasn't perfect, and look how that series grew! I hope this one does the same.
I finally watched the first episode, and quite enjoyed it. At times it reminds me of the old Hercules or Xena, and I've always loved Greek mythology, so I look forward to watching more episodes.
DO: Agreed re just how easy it is for Jason to fit in. How he suddenly jumps off the fall and almost falls of the roof, or how he manages to flip up onto the roof to get away from the hunting lions??
The series has now finished in the UK. I found it be entertaining, and it seems to have set itself up for a second season quite well.
I just wish we'd seen some more of him adjusting to the world he suddenly found himself in.
Jossie: I guess he's just very athletic
I still am only up to ep 3 but seriously
what is up with everyone being able to do a run up, and some how launch themselves into somersaults and flips OVER the bull with such ease?
Lol, I wondered about that too. Even Hercules was able to do it, which was a complete surprise.
