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, Maimie McCoy, Robert Glenister, Alvaro Ramos, Matt Stokoe, Andre Flynn, Tim McCall, Thalissa Teixeira, Leah Haile, Tom Morely.
The pieces of The Musketeers lives are starting to finally fall into place, all the strands of the past, their choices and the moments of abandonment, are all coming into play as the crown is on the verge of being ridiculed beyond repair and the lives of those most trusted are being scattered like a jigsaw puzzle chucked against a brick wall and then carried off by the prevailing wind. It is no time to make enemies; it is no time to see a calculating foe return to the fold, yet for Athos, Aramis, Porthos and d’Artagnan, the choices they have made now lead them to the point of being the most valuable Prisoners of War.
As the third series comes to its conclusion, this the eighth episode, of the series, keeps up the relentless pace installed by its previous counterpart and asks just who is the real danger to France. The powder keg of emotions that have come between the King and the Queen, the minister trying to hold everything together, the black hearted Lucien Grimaud, played with deep satisfaction by Matthew McNulty and the return of one of the most exciting characters throughout the three series in Milady, once again played by the gracious but wonderful scheming Maimie McCoy; all these conflicting interest at a time of civil unrest, the foreshadowing of what was to come eventually, all are ready to burn and spread their fuel outwards.
The fire is perhaps ready to explode into a thousand parts but none so much perhaps as much Tom Burke’s Athos, a part that has really dominated the screen and is fully deserved to be recognised as such. Tom Burke has really captured the death of times, that an era is on the verge of passing into history and his momentary stand off against the King, is one that cannot go unnoticed or unpunished.
When fighting on the side of good, you are always bound by the sentence of honour and the actions of truth, it is one that does not bode well for The Musketeers as they fight on towards their final and inevitable war; the Prisoners of War are destined to fight encumbered by their own sense of noble respect.
Ian D. Hall