The Musketeers, Death Of A Hero. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Matthew McNulty, Luke Pasqualino, Hugo Speer, Rupert Everett, Thalissa Teixeira, Lukas Juza, Andre Flynn, Jared Doreck, Tom Morely, Ben Whitrow.

The manipulation of a single moment in Time, the guise in which our last moments on Earth can cover and disguise every intention and possible misdeed that went before it, is as easy to fall into as the truly heroic and virtuously noble man to slip into the bear pit of a single mistake which undoes every honourable and moral act ever taken…manipulation of a single moment is always remembered by history in the final breath of the person and one that can signal the Death of a Hero.

The hero is very much at the centre of Alexandre Dumas’ Musketeers’ life and heart and it is to that the B.B.C. television series that the hero stands in all their glory, arguably in a way untouched by the passing of many cinematic productions which have sadly left a disjointed taste in the mouth of many a fan of Dumas’ work.

It only after all takes a moment to be the hero you always wanted to be and the four Musketeers install that sense of the gallant and valiant heart but it is one that is shrouded in the possibility of death lingering upon every corner and on every street, waiting to take you down and allow anarchy to rise.

The act of hero is neatly captured in this episode of The Musketeers, each character representing a vital hold on the concept, whether for good or for ill, they seize the courage to see through the conviction of their cause and try to keep France in a state of laudable appreciation. This is no more supremely framed than in the relationship between King Louis and Aramis, one holding onto life with a sense of misplaced piety and the other doomed for his affair with the Queen. It is in the nobility of the two men that the notion of the hero is witnessed. The act of forgiveness, as far as it goes, is a gracious gesture that many find hard to swallow and despite it all, should be one that is seen to be the final act of friendship.

Heroes die, it is an inescapable fact, for to keep the hero alive is too open wounds that cannot be healed, the hero will ultimately take a fall and redemption becomes an uneasy bedfellow. Yet, as The Musketeers shout in unison that they will not die today, perhaps hero worship might still be a concept worth having.

Ian D. Hall