by Melissa Parkin

So why am I not impressed?
Though the late biker series gives Sutter
undeniable clout to do as he pleases, Sons’ legacy casts a large shadow on anything
the show’s creator would tackle thereafter–especially on his very next project.
SOA can easily be called a 21st century classic, with its
Shakespearean undertones, rich dialogue, dark story-lines, an amazing, ensemble
cast of character actors, and a magnetizing lead. Sutter seems to have
abandoned this dynamite formula though for every cliché found in similarly
toned projects.
The Bastard Executioner centers on former knight Wilkin Brattle (played by newcomer Lee Jones)
who has chosen to live quietly with his wife in the farmlands of Wales after
being emotionally and physically scarred by the horrors of war. Forced into
fighting, in local rebellions against the hypersensitive Baron Ventris, Wilkin
and his gang of bandits become public enemies. As a result, tragedy strikes,
forcing Wilkin to assume the identity of a slain traveling executioner to exact
his revenge against the men who wronged him.
That single paragraph sums up the entirety
of the full two-hour pilot episode. Does it sound a bit padded for its run-time?
That’s because it is. Not until the last fifteen minutes or so does the show
finally grab your attention. The rest seems to be a test on our patience and
ability to digest overused tropes. Giving the creative nature of Sons,
it’s easy to get one’s hopes high before viewing Bastard. We expect
those tropes to be twisted and turned over on their heads into something that
we’ve never seen before. We expect brilliant characters that we immediately
take a liking to, whether they be hero or villain. We expect the show’s
execution to match the creator’s reputation.
And we get…none of that.
For anyone remotely
familiar to this genre, you’ll predict every single event at least two steps
before it unfolds on screen. The story borrows all too by and large from Ridley
Scott’s Robin Hood and Mel Gibson’s Braveheart. Newcomer Lee
Jones has all the physical attributes to be a leading man, but his performance
doesn’t evoke the same poignancy as Charlie Hunnam did. The rest of the cast
isn’t particularly memorable either with the exception of Katey Sagal and
Stephen Moyer, who appear to be playing caricatures of their characters. There’s
virtually no levity in the script to uplift the constant grim atmosphere. Most
disappointing of all is the key lack of character development. No matter how
gritty and stylized the show may be, nothing substitutes character. Similar shows—like
Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth and Michael Hirst’s Vikings—established
themselves from the get-go with authenticity and well-crafted characters,
making their stories worth devouring. Despite high hopes, Bastard’s premiere
episode sadly reads as nothing more than an uninventive knockoff.
RATING: C –
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