Houdini and Doyle
Shore Z Productions
Oh, Houdini and Doyle. How can you hurt me like this? You have so much going for you!
How can you be so…boring?
Houdini and Doyle is a new show on Fox Network in which Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle solve mysteries whilst bickering over whether or not the supernatural exists (Doyle says yes, Houdini says no). In the pilot, “The Maggie’s Redress,” the pair investigate the murder of a nun who runs one of the Magdalene Laundries. They are joined by Constable Stratton, a woman who struggles to win respect in her department. One of the nuns swears that the murderer is a girl who worked at the laundry but who died six months prior. This nun believes that the girl’s ghost seeks revenge against the nuns who tormented her. Doyle thinks she might be right. Houdini thinks that probably a real live human is stealing money. And Constable Stratton is just happy to have a real crime to solve instead of being ordered to make coffee all the time.
This show has problems. Here is a helpful list of them:
- The sets look artificial and cheap. Fox didn’t do much to promote the show and it seems they didn’t put much money into it, either. This actually works nicely during scenes set in Harry’s theater, which is supposed to look artificial and cheap, but everything else looks terrible.
- A Buddy Cop Procedural depends almost entirely on the chemistry (not necessarily sexual) between the two leads. Stephen Mangan, who plays Doyle, and Michael Weston, who plays Houdini, lack this chemistry. It should be endlessly entertaining to see them bounce off each other, with Doyle playing the believer and Houdini the skeptic, but for the most part it’s dull. I did enjoy their game of ping-pong, though, which hints that these actors are most lively when their characters have something relaxed yet active to do.
- The funny lines are not funny. Meanwhile, the lines that establish character and conflict are overly obvious, even for a pilot.
- I can accept a certain loosey-goosey approach to history if it means I get Houdini and Doyle as detective partners, but this is ridiculous. Ehlers-Danos Syndrome didn’t have that name until 1936. You know how I know that? Ten seconds on Google. I don’t ask for the moon here but I do think the screenwriters should consult Wikipedia at least. The name wasn’t necessary to the plot; it’s just gratuitous laziness.
- The resolution of the mystery made no sense whatsoever. It made so little sense that it made me switch from boredom to severe aggravation.
- Houdini and Doyle is a can’t lose series title, so of course I can see why the network went with it. Still, it pisses me off that the title isn’t Houdini, Doyle, and Stratton, since she becomes a member of the team shortly after the episode begins.
That’s not to say that this show is without some redeeming qualities. To start with, one of the nuns who is a witness to the case is black, a nice departure from the all-white casts we so often encounter in historicals. Then there’s the character of Constable Stratton. As played by Rebecca Liddiard, she jumps off the screen. She has all the stage presence that her male co-stars lack. I expect great things from her in the future.
And…that’s it for redeeming qualities. There are all the ingredients of a perfect show here. It has so many things I usually adore: Victoriana, skeptic versus believer, angsty personal backstories, a serious, by-the-book guy and a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants impish prankster, and feminism. It’s just so bland. There’s no life in this show – not yet, any way. Other than Liddiard, who can’t possibly save this show all by herself although she’s certainly trying, everyone seems half asleep.
The pilot of a show is usually shaky. But for a pilot to work, no matter how tentative it is, it has to do two jobs: it has to introduce the basic premise of the show, and it has to make us care about the characters, even if the characters aren’t very developed yet. I can honestly say that the only character I care about from this show is Stratton, and I can only hope that she sets the police station on fire and goes rogue. The premise of the show is great. The execution is, and it pains me to say this, boring.
Damn.
Have you read this? http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-female-ghost-buster-who-rooted-out-spiritual-fraud-for-houdini?
Because I read it and was like, I want that to be series sooooo much.
I forgot to mention I wanted it to be good. Sorry.
I pretty much agree with all you said here, especially the shining light of Rebecca Liddiard’s Stratton. She steals the show with every line. I want to smack Houdini with each of *his* lines, which may be what the writers were going for. Doyle isn’t quite charismatic enough. A nice guy with a sad situation and a family to care for, but nothing stands out about him.
Let’s get Stratton a box of matches, Fox!
I’ve had the pilot sitting on my DVR since it aired, but after this review, it looks like I’ll be just sticking with Murdoch Mysteries (not that I was going to abandon MM, but you know what I mean), which incidentally had both Doyle and Houdini as guest characters.
Okay, now I feel better about this. You know a show’s bad when I’m playing online out of boredom less than halfway through the first episode. But I thought it must just be me. I’m glad to get corroboration that it was actually the show.
I can’t quite get over how much Rebecca Liddiard looks like Emma Watson, though. She’s almost as much of a doppelganger as Hayley Atwell (Peggy Carter) is for a young Kate Beckinsale.
I’ve only watched one episode and I absolutely loathed it. I found it boring and the mystery not particularly interesting. I love the idea of Houdini and Doyle as crime-fighting partners involved with the supernatural but why not set in later in the 1920’s when Houdini and Doyle were actually friends? Part of the problem with this show is the lack of chemistry between Doyle and Houdini. Mangan plays the role as a wet noodle, I can’t believe his Doyle created Sherlock Holmes and Michael Weston just plays Houdini as a horndog. And yes, this show basically throws history out of the window when it comes to the one redeeming character in the show Stratton as well as the fact that Houdini was long married by 1901. Women officers didn’t have full power of arrest until 1914 and they were volunteers who only dealt with women.
I have one reason for not watching this show, as much as I love a costume drama. I know how Houdini died, so it just can’t possibly have a happy ending.
I have two rules for watching television shows:
1. No happy couples (self-explanatory).
2. The pilot always sucks.
The way rule 2 works for me is that even if I hate the pilot, I’ll watch one more episode. For example, I barely made it through the pilot of Firefly (so long!), but I love the series. HOWEVER. There have been times when I found the pilot was so truly atrocious, so utterly without redeeming factors, that I broke my own rule. *cough* Elementary *cough* Houdini and Doyle has such a great premise that I was really looking forward to it. It seems I might as well spare myself the disappointment.
Has Fox ever made a historical show before? Maybe they just don’t know how. I want Dilliard’s pinstriped uniform/dress though plz.
I like anything Sherlock, and so far i like this series too. But, I need an explanation in episode 2, (A dish of Adharma). At the end , they say “Everything has been explained.” WHAT!!! They didn’t explain anything about how the kid knew EXACTLY where the body was buried! AND, that he was shot in the head, and EXACTLY where in the head, so he could self-inflict it to himself. I’ve gone over the video 3 times now, and can’t find where it’s explained. Anyone else notice it?
It’s a terrible show with all the balls stacked in the skeptic court so of course they would say it was all explained when it hasn’t. I mean, with this premise, give a nod to *maybe* Doyle is correct Otherwise he’s a boring idiot.
I agree that the first ep was disappointingly bland–especially ’cause I LURVE Mangan in Green Wing and Dirk Gently. And I heart Weston from his “Private Dancer” role on Scrubs. I did watch the 2nd ep, as a show’s pilot has a tough job and isn’t always 100% successful in reeling me in. I wish the Houdini character wasn’t directed to be such a tool. And yeah, I second the Emma Watson comment from above. Still, I do heart Victoriana, so I’ll probs watch again, until something pisses me off. 🙂