So Channel 4 have begun broadcasting a new historical drama called New Worlds. It’s the televisual sequel to The Devil’s Whore, which puts me at a bit of a disadvantage, due to not watching it, however, it looks interesting enough to pick up. New Worlds is set in the 1680s, following plots set in two locations, England and America. It stars Freya Mavor, Joe Dempsie, Jamie Dornan, Eve Best, Jeremy Northam and Alice Englert.
For those that haven’t seen it yet, here’s the trailer:
I’m going to be reviewing this one as it airs, starting, obviously, with episode one.
It opens well, with a bit of conflict between landowner’s son Ned, played by Joe Dempsie (Skins, Game of Thrones) and the villagers over unpaid rent, followed by an attack by the Natives. We then switch to good old England, where the countess Angelica Fanshawe (Eve Best – Nurse Jackie) is skipping around in her white nightdress along with her daughter Beth (Freya Mavor – Skins, The White Queen). This is where it begins to go a bit downhill for me.
Although throughout there are several little revelations and hooks that do keep you interested, much of this historical piece seems slightly over the top, be it the previously mentioned naive nightdress purity of Beth to the self righteous Robin-Hood-esque character of Abe Goffe (Jamie Dornan – The Fall). He actually declares himself to be a Robin Hood to Beth during the moment of obvious sexual tension between the pair in the woods. Which brings me onto another point I noted; there are quite a lot typical tropes, which are expected to a certain extent in any historical drama. However, New Worlds seems crammed full of them; the naive beauty who has a romantic little encounter with a dastardly rogue (who no doubt everyone will end up loving); the bastard son that tends to pop up; the probable heir trying to usurp the king (the king being Jeremy Northam – The Tudors); some form of land conflict; the kick-arse, down-to-earth woman who has no issues getting her hands dirty (played by Alice Englert – Ginger & Rosa). It all seems a bit overwhelming and typical, and more often then not, I found myself getting a bit annoyed with the character of Beth. The storylines also tend to jump around quite a bit, and I had to really concentrate to grasp what was going on.
It really wasn’t a fantastic episode. There was a lot crammed into a short space, which is usual for a pilot – after all, it’s the opening episode to keep the audience hooked – but where this failed was how it used quantity over quality. I personally would have preferred it to be developed better rather than chucking in a load of stuff and hoping we’d be interested. It wasn’t completely abysmal however – as I said before, there are a few little hooks that intrigued me slightly. Here’s hoping that the next episode will be better. 2/5
Ramblings of Rachools 