Atlantis (BBC) - Episodes 2-3 Review

The opening episode of Atlantis was a big disappointment considering it was made by the same people as Merlin, and although Episodes 2 and 3 aren't brilliant, they're still much more watchable.

Episode 2 followed Jason's quest for an old man's daughter, which led to him meeting Medusa. The production values for the episode weren't that great though, as the CGI monkey/Gollum things looked pretty awful considering the budget for this series. The story also felt a bit useless, as it only introduced Medusa, and bogged down the series with more story arcs such as Jason's curse. The episode was fairly scary if you're a young child though. Jason is still a bit boring as a character though, and it is Pythagoras who is the most compelling character. 6/10

Episode 3 followed a simpler story with Jason and co. sent to the bulls for 'offending' the Queen's nephew, despite Areadne's best intentions. It is still similar to Merlin though, with Areadne as a mix of Morgana and Gwen in character, making her a little boring to watch. The Queen (Sarah Parish) is revealed as a sorceress, and I'm glad our heroes worked it out fairly quickly so the episode moved at a good pace, although the Queen seems a little over the top in her actions, and King Minos seems a bit thick to not noticed anything suspicious, or actually do anything in the episode. The poor chroma keying lets the episode down though, as when the bull-leaping occurs, it looks so fake its almost hilarious. The bulls were real though, which shows more of a budget after awful-looking monkey-things and the Minotaur. 7/10

Atlantis is getting better, but it needs to have something unique about it, as even the setting is not so different to Merlin, albeit in another country.

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