THE DRAGON, THE WITCH AND THE SUBMARINE : "ATLANTIS"

And now a bit of Tv. Because, let’s be frank, we watch one heck of a lot of it. You know how I say you sometimes need to come back to a comfortable classic. Like comfort food. You don’t expect, nor indeed want it to be complicated, you want to be carried away by the story for an hour or so and rest your head from all the “adult world” related nonsense that is going around in it. You also need something like this, I discovered, when you’re in bed with the flu. Unable to get out of bed , go to sleep or do anything constructive for several days I found that I was in severe need of having my mind taken off things – which is where Atlantis came in.

Atlantis is one of the newer productions of the BBC and follows the fate of Jason (Jack Donnelly), a young man from the modern world whose father had got lost in an underwater expedition. Heading fearlessly down to unplumbed depths in a one-man submarine, Jason finds himself in another world. And by that, I do not mean the next one. I mean a mythical land where magic is real and ancient civilisation continues unabated without a touch of modernity and “all it brings”. Jason’s arrival in this magical land is not, however, mere coincidence. Not only does Jason have ties to this land that he never even knew existed, the fate and happiness of many people rest on his shoulders. The question is, can he be the hero Atlantis needs him to be?

Now, first of all let me just say how much I love this series. For those of my generation, guys, it’s basically Narnia for adults. Only it’s for adults and kids – or at least younger audiences. It’s definitely family friendly – which is welcome news for any Game of Thrones fans with young ones. This is definitely one you can sit down and watch all together. Jason is every bit the shining hero and his faithful sidekicks (I’ll let you discover them in your own time haha) are both hilarious and endearing.  If you want to go on an adventure from the safety of your sofa without the added trauma of worrying about your favourite character getting killed off – this one is for you folks. This is goodies vs baddies pure and simple. And I don’t mean this as a bad thing.

Another point I would like to make is, credit where it is due, when you watch the six episodes aired thus far, you can clearly see the writing improve in leaps and bounds. Now come on, enough with that frown, just because I like something, it doesn’t mean I’m not going to point out its faults if I see any. And besides, at this particular point I’m saying it overcame a fault. I couldn’t help noticing the sheer mass of “exposition” going on in the first couple of episodes. You know those scenes where two characters have a lengthy conversation about something and have the sole purpose of providing information for the viewer before you take the next step in the story proper. Now, these are useful but more often than not, an able director can easily weave information into the story itself without taking a step away from it for what we might call a short “instructive video”. Atlantis suffers from a bit of a “public information video” syndrome in its first episodes but credit where it’s due the writing is getting a lot tighter in the latter ones and the story is advancing at a really good pace.

Then again, bizarrely, for a series that had too much exposition at one point, Atlantis does leave quite a few serious plot points unanswered. I mean, come on. I know we’re not actually meant to take our focus off Jason the shining hero but we don’t even know WHAT his father was doing in a sub in the first place? Geology? Zoology? Biology? Testing the sub? Oh and incidentally, Jason is in his early 20s so what exactly are his qualifications to be allowed to take a submarine down on a mission that probably cost the life of an experienced crew member BY HIMSELF? Fine, fair enough, these are all “modern world” problems, we can overlook them. (*SPOILER ALERT – skip to the next paragraph now to avoid it). My other major “thing” is Jason’s superpowers. Oh by the way yeah, in this world, he has superpowers – kind of. Very little is made of them and what they really are – ok fair enough it adds surprise value, kind of puts us on a par with Jason who had no idea he had superpowers either or what exactly they are. But come episode 6, not only has Jason not learnt anything new about their origin or extent (unless he knows something we don’t) – he has completely adapted to them and uses them unquestioningly. I don’t know about you but I’d be freaking out. Big time.

And speaking of adapting (and if you "skipped here, take my word for it, I was), ok, he has ties to this land, he’s not just anyone he is special, he has a destiny but I mean, is it realistic that he has completely adapted to a world with no electricity, running water, phones, cars or heck, even jeans when he was manning a submarine (so I assume some form of engineer at the very least) a matter of hours ago? There is SO MUCH potential for comic relief right there – and it only gets used briefly in the first half of episode one. Not that the series lacks in comic relief. Pythagoras and Hercules (Robert Emms and Mark Addy respectively) are positively hilarious - but you know… Adding a slightly unsure Jason to the mix would be the cherry on the top.

I totally get what they are trying to do with Jason though; he is the “shining hero” that can do no wrong. Precisely the kind of hero you want when you’re in bed with the flu or after a long, hard slog at the office. But, for those who have watched it, admit it, wasn’t it refreshing to watch him fumble over his words and knock things over as he tried to impress Ariadne? Would it not have been awesome to have him develop slowly into a full-fledged and magnificent hero by the end of the season as opposed to having him “express grown” by the end of episode one? A bit of character development, methinks, would not have gone amiss.

I mean, let’s give the series its due. It’s not over yet. There may be reasonable explanations to all of this. In fact, I may to a re-cap when the series has ended. Trust me I’ll be in a good position to make the judgement. Because I don’t intend to miss a single, solitary episode.