Nautilus
If you are a fan of British comedy if I were to randomly yell at you "Yes, I can hear you Clem Fandango!" you would hopefully laugh and then become my new best friend. The name Clem Fandango brings joy into the world. And the echoes of Matt Berry as Steven Toast screaming. Shazad Latif is Clem Fandango. Because, while he has been wonderful in so many shows, big shout-out to Penny Dreadful, I will forever refer to him as Clem Fandango. And yes, it has to be his full name. First and last, not just Clem not just Fandango. The whole Clem Fandango. Anyway, for this I will try to refer to Shazad Latif by his real name and even if I didn't I could totally cut and paste his name over my typing Clem Fandango before I posted this and you would never know the difference. What all this is in aid of is that because of my love for Shazad Latif I have been waiting for Nautilus for what seems like forever. This was a show in limbo. They finished filming over two years ago when it was going to be on Disney+. Dinsney+ shelved it because apparently that's what you do to make a buck these days, look to The Spiderwick Chronicles. A tax write-off is more valuable than quality entertainment. Then Amazon bought it and I was excited, because that meant to was totally, finally going to be released, and then nope. They weren't going to be distributing it. Finally it was announced that AMC+ had acquired it and that it would totally be coming out soon. Like the beginning of 2025 at the latest. January came and went, winter turned to spring and finally, FINALLY Sunday, June 29th, 2025 could be marked on my calendar as the day I could finally see this show I've waited for for so long. And, I don't know what I was expecting, perhaps something along the lines of The Librarians, a cheesy but fun show that had a stacked list of guest stars but was overall just a nice way to spend an evening. In other words, due to other recent H.G. Wells adaptations, yes, I'm looking at you Around the World in 80 Days with your white savior complex, and PTSD from seeing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in theaters, TWICE, over twenty years ago, I mentally set the bar very low. Which means I wasn't just impressed, I was blown away. I don't know if such a thrilling and modern adventure series with such high production values and incredible acting has ever been made like this. I didn't just enjoy the show, the weekly cliffhangers that reminded me of the best in serial storytelling made me wait with baited breath for each new installment. What's more, this is for an audience with modern sensibilities, IE, there is no white savior complex here. The cast made up of characters who were literally slaves and are almost exclusively minorities, save themselves and then set about to destroy their oppressors. And who were historically the worst oppressors? The East India Company! Down with that sort of thing! Bonus points if you know which British comedy that comes from. Nautilus is just such a wonderful show about survival versus domination and exploration versus destruction. It also examines what riches mean to those who were oppressed; freedom, safety, and, in the end, it can mean vengeance. There are so many levels on which this show works, but what I was left with most was wonder. There was a childlike wonder this show brought about in me. Dare I say that this show gave me hope? I dare say it did. It also brought me joy. Or, as others might say, Clem Fandango!
Hot air balloons and Phileas Fogg go together like Amelia Earhart and aeroplanes. But here's the thing I learned from Michael Palin; Phileas Fogg never goes up in a hot air balloon once in the book. It's a conceit entirely made up for the adaptations and ingrained on our minds by the poster for the 1956 film starring David Niven. In fact almost everything I know about Around the World in Eighty Days I learned from Michael Palin and his documentary where he tried to recreate the journey. Perhaps I should read the book? Or perhaps not. Reading the summary it doesn't seem to have aged well with regard to indigenous cultures. Well, the best thing that can be said about this adaptation is it gets the balloon out of the way in the first episode. I really don't know who this adaptation is made for, aside from my Dad who loves it despite all it's faults. Each episode feels like they have to build to a "teaching moment" with a "very special guest star" who will explain why whatever the issue of the day is is bad. How did they get Lindsay Duncan to do this show? I know she has some schlock on her resume, but seriously? Which brings me back to the who is this written for? Children would be bored stiff, adults just see what's wrong with the whole production and feel a little talked down to when we're told racism is bad. Yeah, I do know a lot of people might need reminding, but I don't think those people are watching PBS. The aesthetic is more Dickensian than Attenborough, and I think you'd want to marvel at the world not make it so dark and dirty. But perhaps they were pushing against all the previous primary color adaptations. As for the music? Hans Zimmer's studio has a lot to answer for for this entirely unappealing Murray Gold wannabe vibe it's failing hard at. It would literally be better without music. Or if it wasn't ripping off another of their own productions, His Dark Materials. In fact everything about this production, aside from the casting, is poor. I actually feel sorry for the actors. David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, and Leonie Benesch are acting their hearts out and breaking ours and the material is just failing them. I feel bad. Especially for Miss Fix. Here we have a woman finally with her own initiative in this male's world, being based on Nellie Bly and her attempt to beat the fictional Phileas Fogg's eighty day journey, and instead it takes her from being a world class journalist and intrepid explorer to someone prey to love and yelling about the Chinese not inventing forks. Seriously!?! At least have some standards for the writing! And shoehorning in how she's "changed" as a throwaway line in the finale doesn't count as proper character development. And don't get me started on her pretty dress!
