DaViD´82

Despite not being faithful to the original, Johnston is more true to its spirit and atmosphere of classic horrors from Universal. Both the well-known and well-made, and also those magical naive “such-and-such versus something-or-other" B-movies. I couldn’t ask for more. And it’s also evident that the creators love these movies (there is endless proof of this, e.g. the scene with the medical symposium where they nod at the initial aim of the original, before the studio stepped in). And not just because my heart beat away in utter delight for the entire movie (quite appropriately, since it was Valentine’s Day), which prevented me from making a valid comment about the fact that in some places it was really rather obvious that they didn’t see eye to eye with the producers as to the final cut.

It all started eight episodes ago with an atmospheric rainy opening, so it's more than apt that it all ends with an equally atmospheric snowy finale. Although this is probably unintentional, as it is obvious that a fourth series was in the works, though it feels like the sea has swallowed it.

Thanks to a healthy financial injection, part three at last looks considerably better. And this episode flies by the best of all. And this fact proves that well-presented action does a good job at hiding the fact that this time are completely sidelined and not a hint of tension exists between them anymore. And that was one of the good points of the previous episodes.

The second half, when we return to the intimate dramatic waters familiar in previous parts, is a prime example of the very best of Hornblower’s adventures. And even toward the end emotions begin to work, which was not one of the strengths of this series. What holds Retribution back is the long story with the fortress during which indicates that the budget for the second season was increased, but this seems to be the only purpose of it. P.S.: And "Buckland“ must have been played by obitus, no question about it!

Hornblower is finally coming back from dry land where he belongs, on board of a ship, that is. Suddenly the poetry of the past episodes is back there, which is not a bad thing at all, because this is a straight drama of Shakespearean proportions.

Again Hornblower doesn’t get a chance to get his sea feet and spends most of this episode on dry land. Although I still don’t understand why set an seafaring adventure series on dry land, what can you do? But in fact, this time round it seemed a little less mundane than last episode, and so the biggest problem is Gruffudd’s heartbreaking weeping. It made me laugh so hard, that it ended in tears.

Hornblower washed up on dry land is like a whale in the same situation. It just seems unnatural. Not boring or uninteresting, but just not quite “right". And, as the scene where they sail through the middle of the Spanish fleet in pea-souper fog shows how Horatio belongs on the sea, there’s nothing you can do to change it. That is where the magic of his adventures lies.

When you are in command of a disintegrating ship with a crew potentially infected with plague and cattle dying of thirst, it isn’t a easy to get a bit of studying done. Even Chuck Norris would have a hard time doing that. But not Hornblower, he handles this sort of challenge blindfold. Outstanding, but still a little worse than the first part. Everything in this part is fully focused on Horatio, which is logical, I suppose, but ignoring the rest of the crew hurts. While part one thrived on the division of focus, part two suffers from avoiding it. Not that much, but a bit.

At the start it was fifty-fifty whether this TV series would work (or not). However, already the opening atmospheric scene with the arrival of the rain thrashed HMS Justinian immediately quashes any such fears. The opening episode is not intended to do anything but to introduce the characters and to the viewer onto the hero’s side. And even though a bigger budget would have helped, it does these brief introductions in style. Because Grieve is a clever, ripe gentleman and so he knows very well that to play the awe-inspiring production design card is pointless if you don’t give a damn about the characters. And you can be sure that neither of the above happens in this.

Extremely studio-filmed and some of the roles were played shamefully theatrically. But that isn’t the problem here. Peck’s is certainly no worse that Gruffudd’s, but that isn’t the problem either. Could it be that apart from Peck, the others are just extras to make up the numbers? That’s true, but so what? The filmmakers crammed several of Hornblower’s adventures into the two hours, so what the British TV series devoted a feature-length episode to, here it takes just twenty to thirty minutes and on to another “episode". But believe it or not, this isn’t really such a problem either. The core of the pickle is that it has no tempo at all. And so I often felt more like an apathetic passenger on a sail boat in dead calm in the middle of the Atlantic and not like an enthusiastic viewer of an adventure romance picture.