Hooten & the Lady

This was really good! Why would they cancel something that lots of people clearly enjoy. It had everything, a bit of love interest, adventure, comedy the lot. So annoyed.

Lady Alex Lindo-Parker (Ophelia Lovibond) convinces her bosses at the British Museum to fund an Amazon expedition to find the lost Victorian explorer Percy Fawcett last seen in 1925. She is captured by natives along with treasure hunter Ulysses Hooten (Michael Landes). They escape and find Fawcett's map to the legendary city of Z. They would continue to have many adventures retrieving lost artifacts.

This has the Romancing the Stone vibe. Lovibond and Landes have a solid combative romantic chemistry. There is a bit of exotic with the locations. The production is relatively good. With more money, it could really take off. On the other hand, the show has structural problems. The fact that the two leads aren't together means that the show has to construct various reasons to pull them together every week. It has to waste ten minutes out of every episode to make up an excuse for them to join forces. It would have been so much easier if the pilot has Hooten arrested and part of his parole is to help the Lady retrieve artifacts for the museum. There is also very little need for the museum people. The boyfriend is useful but he should be jettisoned at the end of the first season. The show doesn't last that long and is canceled after eight episodes.

It doesn't shy away from the genre clichés and is all the better for it. Written with care and made with a decent budget, this is an enjoyable and long overdue "fill in" between the rare quality action adventure movies that 40somethings grew up on. The acting holds up, just, and the lead characters love/hate relationship has depth and seems to lay a basis for a long run on the series. Let's hope so. In some ways the TV format struggles as the stories have to be fast paced to get the story in. Or maybe we are just used to movies padding them out. Either way the format takes a little getting used to and I hope that the series develops some longer term, undercurrent story lines that take the series beyond the "Popcorn label" that I would give it at present. However a fine effort and well worth your time and sky harddrive spent.

I watch everything. I'm that person that notices that the hotel in Ghostbusters 2, was the same hotel in American Horror Story. With that said...This is a full-on production, with some quality people working on, and behind the scenes. I love the attention to detail! The scenes (real locations) have texture, and grit. The music and sound effects are laced appropriately. The camera crew is legit, with wide shots, booms, dolly's, helicopters, etc (no B-roll here). This show obviously has a budget and people who know what they are doing. Good job guys. This is why you storyboard, and have meetings with the crew (I sense congruity). This show has a good pace, and is easy to watch. You may have to be in the mood for it, but when you have an itch for something like this, there isn't a whole lot out there to choose from. I would compare it to movies like Romancing the Stone, Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and Lara Croft. Those are movies, not TV. Similar TV shows would be Voyagers (yup I said that),and The Librarian (the mini series not the show). As you can see TV doesn't create stuff like this, Movies do. So give it a watch and judge for yourself. As for me I think it has potential, and I like the cinematography.

HOOTEN AND THE LADY is the British comedy-adventure series following the exploits of Lady Alexandra (she is of noble descent, so, she is the real Lady) and the tough guy named Hooten. These thrill-seekers travel around the globe in search of the lost and priceless artefacts. Lady Alexandra is bored with her job at the British Museum. Instead of sorting out papers she would rather run around in the jungle, facing the cannibals and hunting treasures. And that is what she does! Because she is a modern, independent, brave women who always gets what she wants. In the jungle not only does she face the cannibals and find the artefacts but she also meets Hooten. He is so tough, so handsome and, yes, he has got perfect hair... The series features great scenery with filming locations including South Africa, Namibia, Cambodia and China, helicopter and bike stunts, some really impressive (by TV standards) action sequences and solid budget. The whole series is a nod to the classical adventure stories and films ranging from the Allan Quotermain books to Indiana Jones. The thing that pleases me most of all about the series is that it does not pretend to be something serious or substantial. It is pure fun and it wants to be seen this way. I would compare watching this series to spending a sunny summer day on the beach. Or if you want to bring back all those sweet childhood memories of watching Indiana Jones / Lara Croft/ Romancing the stone films, go and see Hooten and the lady.