Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent but underrated film

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The big issue between what Protestantism and Catholicism were actually offering the people is not discussed at all. Let's face facts. These were TERRORISTS who tried to blow up parliament. Yet the series paints these people as heroes. All the sympathy is with the Catholics who had banned their followers access to the Bible; who offered forgiveness of sins for hard cash; whose priests controlled all access to god and controlled all aspect of a person's spiritual life. Not content with this oppression of their own followers they wished to impose their vile ideology upon the English who had rejected the Pope's control over every nation in Europe in favour of religious plurality. How did this travesty come to the screen? Is it any surprise to learn that the writer of this utter nonsense is an Irish Catholic?Aside from being a travesty of history the plot sort of stays on the basic facts, but offers a biased twist in favour of support of terrorism.

Notice there is a word missing from the title? That's right Plot. The Gunpowder Plot was a conspiracy, and a conspiracy by definition is not all about one person. Thirteen men plotted to blow up the King and government, kidnap the princess royal, foment an armed rebellion and seize the reigns of state with the aid of a foreign power. It was daring, almost certainly stupid and heroically irresponsible.Robert Catesby is important yes, because he had the vision and the charisma to persuade twelve very different individuals to sign up for this madcap scheme. But that is part of the problem here: the vision is elusive and, in Kit Harrington's stolid performance there is precious little charisma. As for the remaining conspirators, they are blanks, even Guy Fawkes is nothing more than a by-the-numbers Tom Hardy tribute act. We know nothing about them or what drew them into the plot. In focussing so exclusively on the part played by his aristocratic ancestor, Harrington does not just do a disservice to the other conspirators (half of whom do not get speaking parts), he also drains all the tension from the conspiracy storyline. There should be clashing personalities and differing agendas, paranoia and suspicions, false starts and difficulties encountered; above all as the conspiracy reaches it's climax there should be jangling nerves. It's hard to care about the inner turmoil of characters you have not been properly introduced to, and in fairness the script does not even make the attempt.Instead we get spurious action sequences, such as Catesby's rescue of John Gerard, who actually escaped from the Tower a decade earlier and without Catesby's assistance, and hackneyed Hollywood moments, such as the climatic sequence when Butch Catesby and the Wintourdance Kid charge out in slow motion onto the guns of the Bolivian police force.Above all the focus is on Catesby and his motivations, all seen through a prism of modern sensibilities and contemporary relevance. And that again is a problem, as the history gets mucked around quite a lot in order to make these points. If you are going to depict atrocities in prurient detail and justify them as providing the context for your character's actions, then you can expect to be called out if you over-egg the pudding.The look of the show is good, if a little underlit, but the script is hack work and the performances, for the most part (Liv Tyler as Anne Vaux is a luminous exception) either soapily two-dimensional or pantomime broad. The ubiquitous Gatiss renders a particularly ripe King Rat as that fascinating statesman Robert Cecil. (Historical accuracy would incidentally have been better served by a shorter Cecil and a taller Catesby.)Since Harrington is milking his moment in the sun to get vanity projects commissioned on the lives of his ancestors, I shall look forward with eager anticipation to a three-part drama on the inventor of the flush toilet, an achievement worthy of celebration. Would that someone at the BBC had pulled the chain on this production.

There is a famous contemporary illustration of the plotters which depicts Guy (Guido) Fawkes and the others... he doesn't have a shaved head. He doesn't look like a 21st century thug. My point here is that TV drama has now reached a point where it's very difficult to separate fact from complete and utter fiction. This production looks great, but there's so much of our own time in it. I half expect to see a mobile phone appear. Kit Harington (creator and producer) looks and sounds and feels and smells like Jon Snow. Mark Gatiss looks and sounds and feels and smells like Mark Gatiss... is there no other part that this man can play? Liv Tyler makes an unnecessary appearance. Shaun Dooley looks like a supermarket store manager, and behaves like a pastiche of evil, something akin to Mark Heap's wonderful Robert Greene in Upstart Crow.The recent Taboo from Tom Hardy (creator and producer... there's a theme developing here) was at least a complete fiction. The tribal tattoos and bizarre make up on the faces of the children could be argued away as fiction too. It was an orgy of quasi-historic, to be watched from the safety of our centrally-heated living rooms. And that's the same with Gunpowder. It's history for the hipster, the goth, the inked. Tough and uncompromising but ultimately plain wrong.The crowd watching the horrendous executions are neatly spaced and directed. Some with arms aloft, others with hands cupped around mouths. There's no feeling of the pit, 'mosh' or otherwise. Our leading characters are WAY too attractive, too clean, too obvious. Real people don't look like this... and a Catholic hunter who has been told that exterior wall dimensions don't match those of the interior wouldn't give up on this fact the minute that one (very junior) cleric is found in a trunk. It's nonsense. It looks great, it pleases the modern palate, it gives Kit another excuse to brood and pout, but history it isn't. Who was Catesby? After watching this I am none the wiser. I know he's played by Kit Harington... maybe that's enough? But on the other hand, maybe, just maybe, after the Harvey Weinstein thing has been confined to history, we may move away from film and drama that relies upon looks and sex appeal and, instead, moves towards talent, truth and honesty.

Yet another series that is basically the SAME formula seen in EVERY series these days. Let's see how much torture, violence and gore we can show. Then make sure you stretch out the violence much as possible, showing every single moment of pain. Boring because you can pretty much find the same thing in every new show these days.The story-line is incidental, it's all an excuse for the violent parts.