Hot Off The Press - The Musketeers episode 5

Back on our screens after two weeks, episode five of The Musketeers took a slight The Hangover approach with Porthos waking from a heavy night in the streets next to a corpse who has been shot in the head and is framed for murder; not the best way to start a morning.

Admittedly this show has grown on me and I am starting to find myself more forgiving of some of its shortcomings than when I first started watching. The interaction between all four of the musketeers continues to improve and the action has been getting more and more exciting, particularly this week where the group battle out in the slums of Paris. Having said that, there are some moments where scenes continue to feel a little choppy, never quite matching the smooth fluidity achieved in shows such as Game of Thrones that have the screenplay to provide an added boost. In some instances there are awkward pauses from one scene to the next. Here, Aramis identifies where Porthos might be held captive, Athos turns to acknowledge what has been said and then turns back while the shot lingers a before cutting to the next scene, which felt awkward. While at other times, the show hits the nail on the head with great precision.

With a little more work where the dialogue was spruced up for the time period, instead of being tuned down to feel modern, the show would significantly improve. Saying that though, this was still a perfectly enjoyable episode filled with action and mystery for the musketeers to solve. While the scenes with Porthos meeting friends and flings from the past felt cliched curtesy of a love triangle we've seen before, the gunpowder plot worked well as Capaldi set his mischievous plans in motion.

Story-wise, the initial focus of this episode was originally set on Porthos, however most of the screen time is spent with the rest of the time as they investigate. Similar to issues regarding slavery in a previous episode, religion and ongoing wars between various sides are brought up but are once again poorly handled, and any intrigue is unfortunately lost during a rather bland plot twist. Despite this, I do enjoy the show's attempts to incorporate events and issues that surrounded 17th Century France at the time, if only they were better utilised.

As a minor spoiler (I mention no names!), this episode did continue with the trend of introducing old friends from the past who turn bad and wind up dead at the end. It happened to Iain Glenn as the bitter soldier in Ripper Street and with Aramis' former friend recently, which gave the impression of the show trying to find an easy way to provide closure. My slight issue with this approach is that it starts by telling us something big and eventful about a main character, thereby creating a relationship that could be developed further but by killing them off, it leaves said main character with little left, putting them back at square one almost. That's not to say The Musketeers doesn't handle its characters well, it is a technique though that I hope they will move away from in future episodes having been used several times already.

Following the good news that a second season is on the horizon, I do remain hopeful that the show, as Ripper Street did, takes note of the areas it could improve on and smoothen any rough edges. Thankfully the good outweighs any negatives making for a very entertaining episode five.