Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e08

The season finale for "Around the World in 80 Days" punts pretty much everything except resolving the villain arc for Peter Sullivan. It doesn't give him a character arc—he and Jason Watkins's minor subplot last episode confirmed they wouldn't be going that route—and instead is just about whether or not lead David Tennant's going to lose to Sullivan again. There's some additional backstory on their "friendship," but it doesn't go anywhere; it just makes Sullivan more villainous and Tennant's need to succeed direr.

But Tennant's character development? There are four crucial character moments in the episode, but they're transitory, not conclusive. Ditto Ibrahim Koma and Leonie Benesch's romantic possibilities. It becomes about Koma's character development, and then, when they need to do something with it, the show handles it offscreen. Something else to be dealt with next season, which apparently will involve a different Jules Verne property. It sounds like it'll be fine, I greatly anticipate it, but it's a letdown from where the show was headed for most of the season.

The episode itself is a marvel of pacing. There's time for a cliffhanger resolve, some character development for Koma and Benesch, a big scene for Tennant and guest star Dolly Wells, then an unexpected, excellent fight scene, all in New York. But there's a whole other plot waiting for the cast once they get on the boat, including Koma and Benesch dealing with shitty American racists. The show went six episodes without having overt racism, then throws in Americans, and they're abhorrent. Accurate, both in characterization and circling the globe east-to-west, but the balance is off.

Especially since Tennant, who the show's finally established needs to be more cognizant of racism (having become cognizant of sexism and classism earlier in the series), has nothing to do with the scene. It's a moment for character development, and Pharaoh runs away from it.

The conclusion, which has Tennant suffering one setback after another, is masterfully timed as well. Steve Barron's back directing; it's not his showiest episode, but the way he moves the episode along is extraordinary. It's forty-five or fifty minutes and feels like a ninety-minute two-parter, the way the drama hinges on these actually short scenes from the main cast. Mainly Tennant, who unfortunately gets his season finale character development done through him remembering important scenes in earlier episodes. But when he actually gets to do scenes, they're pretty good.

Especially opposite Wells, who's a delight.

But as for his friendships with Koma and Benesch, the episode skirts dealing with their impact and importance. Actually cuts them from one of the flashbacks. But, again, there's presumably plenty of time since there's another season. And the episode does acknowledge there's been some character development in the last scene. It's not too little, too late, but it's very little, very late. Very little in the last possible moments, actually.

It's a terrific show. Uneven only because it seemed more ambitious early on, and then also deciding at the last minute to address Koma being Black and doing a perfunctory job of it. But excellent acting from Tennant, Koma, Benesch, and Watkins, and an outstanding production. Narrative punting aside, Pharoah's script is spectacularly paced and has some enjoyable twists. Especially for guest star Richard Wilson.

I just hope next season knows where it's going.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e07

After spending six full episodes ignoring the Black part of Ibrahim Koma’s Black Frenchman, this episode tackles and wrestles with the subject for most of the episode. Because they’re in the United States now and, what you’re not going to agree the United States, is really racist? Throughout the episode, it feels like “Around the World” is sticking up a superior European nose. The Klan leader John Light will say something, and it’s something in the modern United States both-siders political discourse and, well, no, show’s right.

This episode, our heroes are traveling by stage from San Francisco to Battle Mountain, Nevada, to catch a train. It’s a bumpy but uneventful ride—stage operator Elena Saurel flirts with David Tennant to Leonie Benesch and the audience’s amusement. Otherwise, they’re on track to make their train and make-up time.

Until first Black U.S. Marshall Bass Reeves (Gary Beadle) needs a ride on the stage with prisoner Light. Koma immediately takes to Beadle since he’s the first fellow Black person on the show since episode one and favors letting them join the plot. But, it’s simpler for Tennant and Benesch—Light’s polite and gentlemanly, what could be wrong with him.

Light, of course, assumes Tennant understands the world through Confederate values, whereas Tennant apparently knows and cares nothing of the U.S. political landscape. Even as Light tries to warn Tennant of Koma and Benesch’s tentatively romantic relationship, Tennant doesn’t get the hint. Koma, Benesch, and everyone else gets the hint, but Tennant can’t imagine thinking about such things.

It’ll eventually lead to a tense shootout in a saloon with lots of heroics and bonding for the good guys. The Southerners, besides aristocrat Light, are all toothless imbeciles. All the Westerners are moral cowards at best. I suppose the episode’s more Western than not, though Charles Beeson’s direction emphasizes character over action.

But does it successfully address how race and class intersect? No. Does it successfully reconcile how it avoided that topic all series? Also, no. I mean, Tennant’s too much of a good egg to really understand racism or even sincere jingoism, and it’s a downer conversation, so why dwell. Problematically, those sentiments are Koma’s in addition to the show’s. Anyway, they’re nearly out of America by the end of the episode, so chalk it up complete. It really does screw Koma over, emphasis-wise, however.

The episode itself is good. The character development for Tennant’s not sincere but successful within its constraints. Koma and Benesch’s flirtations at flirtations are good. Beadle, Light, and Samuel are probably the best examples of British actors playing Americans on non-American television in memory. I had to keep reminding myself they probably weren’t actually American.

The ending reveal cliffhanger does a nice job looping back to the beginning of the series, successfully focusing on Tennant’s quest instead of his privileged ignorance.

I sound more bearish on it than I “feel,” but maybe not more than the episode deserves; I wish British shows would take the subject of racism in the United States more seriously in their productions and not just vague sentiments.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e06

Outside the way too quick resolve to last episode's cliffhanger and either a continuity gaffe (or a lousy narrative choice), nothing is wanting about this episode. However, given its simplicity, it should be a slam dunk. And it is a slam dunk. It's maybe just not an exciting slam dunk. But, given the setting, the actors, and the character dynamics, our three heroes stuck together on a tropical island while angry at one another and having to work it out… it's going to be successful. It's got to be successful. There are the right amounts of drama, danger, and friendship, and then good acting.

Of course, it's going to work.

However, the episode's got more than just the tropical island castaway plot; it's also got a London plot. And the London plot is unexpected and ambitious from a character perspective.

Okay, the main plot is David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, and Leonie Benesch stuck on a tropical island. The continuity gaffe involves how far they were from Yokohama when they went off-course. The end of the last episode suggested it was all immediately following the main action, so there were no two days to play with. Unless Tennant moped around the bar for forty-eight hours straight, which is possible, actually.

Given their close proximity—and Tennant beating himself about getting Koma and Benesch stranded in the middle of the Pacific—pretty soon, Koma breaks down and tells Tennant the truth about some things. I don't think even all the things, though some of the confessing happens off-screen, but enough Tennant's outraged. Tennant and Benesch take one part of the beach, Koma takes another. Only Koma knows how to survive, and he's trying to make amends, so he's always present in one way or another. Even if it's just Benesch considering the situation and how hard to try to influence Tennant.

There's excellent acting from all the actors, but no clear best. Tennant gets a great monologue, but his character would be a partial fail overall if it wasn't a great monologue. Koma gets some excellent scenes but not the arc. Benesch primarily supports the two men but does raise some of the more challenging questions. For example, she and Tennant have a great scene talking about privilege, mirroring the one they had a few episodes ago. In that one, Tennant did the talking; in this one, Benesch does it.

The main plot has a good resolution, the right amount of gentle humor, and some burgeoning character drama (but positive drama).

The B plot, with Jason Watkins and Peter Sullivan in England, has character drama but all negative. Even when it seems optimistic—against all odds—it's actually harmful. Because the heroes are castaways long enough to be reported dead. So Watkins thinks daughter Benesch and friend Tennant are dead, while Sullivan thinks he's indirectly responsible for the deaths. I mean, he'd be directly responsible for it, but Sullivan's not going to take on that kind of guilt.

So it's this very British mourning stuff, which then gets referenced in the A-plot when Koma and Tennant have it out over British friendships and French friendships.

Superb acting from Watkins and Sullivan. There's a chance Sullivan will have the second-best character arc in the show. There's the potential for it. And then Watkins is mired in regret. Very, very heavy stuff, even knowing the characters are alive (for now).

Excellent direction again from Brian Kelly and another good script (credited to Peter McKenna). This episode might be "Around"'s most straightforward—or at least its most traditional—but they do an exquisite job with it. Thanks mainly to the actors, sure, but the production's marvelous as well.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e05

A couple things jumped out from the opening titles for this episode. First, there’s a new director—Brian Kelly—but more interestingly, there’s a “story by” credit. “Around the World in 80 Days” is a novel adaptation. Debbie O’Malley gets the story credit, Jessica Ruston gets the writing credit. Jules Verne gets his credit, too (but not his residuals). Once more, not having read the source novel, I’m ignorant.

There are several plot points I wouldn’t guess are in the original. Maybe David Tennant’s adventurer being stuck in Hong Kong because bad guy Anthony Flanagan has impersonated a cop and told the bank not to give him any money because he’s a con man. Maybe Ibrahim Koma knowing someone in Hong Kong. But not Koma’s friend being a Chinese crime boss (played by Thomas Chaanhing), who wants him to steal back an artifact from the British.

Koma’s in a good spot to steal back the artifact because the British governor, Patrick Kennedy, throws Tennant a party for being an adventurous Englishman. Well, actually, Kennedy’s throwing the party because his wife, Victoria Smurfit, and all her friends think Tennant’s a dashing romantic hero. Thanks to Leonie Benesch writing a feature article about Tennant’s lost love, which Tennant told her in confidence (actually while tripping) and wrote about without permission.

I doubt the romantic hero thing is in the source novel. Though maybe Verne did address toxic masculinity. Also, probably not Benesch’s father, Jason Watkins, supporting his daughter’s attempts to make the newspaper medium more writerly.

Definitely not the thing about the artifact’s potential return to the Chinese being justified. Though the episode doesn’t hold its punches when characterizing the British empire.

It’s a reasonably simple episode, albeit one with a lot of drama. Without cash, Tennant has to rely on Koma to find them lodgings in Hong Kong, the least eventful plot point in the episode. The need for money leads to all the problems, whether it’s Tennant palling around with Kennedy and Smurfit or Koma trying to get a loan from Chaanhing. Tennant’s character drama starts later in the episode—and ends up being shockingly intense—while Koma’s got a lot going on from the start since he knows what’s Flanagan’s doing but can’t tell without revealing too much truth about himself.

Benesch’s attempts to keep Tennant from reading her article are the closest thing the episode has comic relief, though it’s definitely got its dramatic moments as well. Director Kelly balances things well, and Benesch does an outstanding job this episode.

The episode ends with a big cliffhanger and not just Tennant starting to learn more about Koma; “Around the World: Season One” seems to be heading into its third act.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e04

While it’s not the concept episode I want (an hour of David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, and Leonie Benesch waiting for a train), this episode does a fine job introducing new elements to the show while still sticking to the “formula.” Though calling it, a “formula” might be stretching it. The episodes cover salient experiences during their trip “Around the World in 80 Days.” Unfortunately, there’s just no audience for “Fogg After Hours.”

This time, the trio is stuck in India, thanks to Tennant assuming the cross-continental Indian railway was completed. He read about it in Benesch’s article, but she wasn’t writing a travel guide, instead a feature on technology. It’s day twenty-eight of eighty, about nine days since the last episode. Seems like Benesch’s inaccuracies could be a go-to trope.

In what’s either a Temple of Doom reference or just how the British tell stories about India, Tennant and company come across an Indian kid who takes them back to her village. Reeya Gangen plays the kid. I don’t think her character ever gets named in the episode, but she’s going to have this gentle relationship with Tennant, who trips balls around her, and she thinks it’s funny in a caring way.

There are quite a few guest stars in the episode, which has them interrupting a wedding celebration. Or trying to interrupt a wedding celebration. Matriarch Shivaani Ghai isn’t giving Tennant a guide to get him to their next point of departure until the following day, no matter how much Tennant complains or tries to be a British aristocrat. Her daughter, Rizelle Januk, is the bride-to-be. The groom is Kiroshan Naidoo, a soldier in the British Indian Army. Charlie Hamblett is his commanding officer, who Naidoo told everyone gave him leave to get married, but Hamblett very much did not.

After Hamblett arrests Naidoo, Ghai says she’ll give Tennant a guide if he white guy talks Hamblett out of prosecuting. Except Koma’s really upset at how selfish Tennant’s being about the trip and decides to take matters into his own hands, dosing his tea with a sleeping agent. Except it’s too much, and Tennant trips out, beginning in his meeting with Hamblett.

Meanwhile, Benesch and Januk bond, partially over Januk’s problems, partially over just being women.

There’s a grand finale with Tennant laying bare parts of his reserved British soul. There’s a lot of good acting in the episode, whether Benesch and Januk becoming friends, Koma’s disappointment, anger, and regret, and Tennant and Ghai’s polite but honest conversations. None of it compares to Tennant’s monologuing at the end. It’s excellent writing throughout, especially on that monologue (because it’s got to account for a lot of Tennant’s colonizing bullshit too). The script’s got four credited writers Ashley Pharoah, Claire Downes, Ian Jarvis, and Stuart Lane.

As usual, really good direction from Steve Barron. There’s pretty much no action and a lot more comedy (Tennant’s trip), but also lots of dramatic tension for everyone at one time or another. Barron does it all quite well.

There are seven main actors in this episode—the trio, bride, groom, mom, British officer—all give phenomenal performances. Any single one of the guest star performances would be enough to put it over, so having all four be stellar is, frankly, special. “Around the World in 80 Days” is a spectacular success.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e03

During the previous episode recap, I had the hope “Around the World in 80 Days” wouldn’t be formulaic—David Tennant gets in travel trouble, either due to historical events or his inexperience and anxieties. This episode’s formulaic. It does indeed involve travel troubles and a resolution—complete with Tennant’s thoughtfulness saving the day. It’d be nice to see an episode do something else, to put the characters in some non-dramatic situation.

Not happening this time.

Tennant, valet Ibrahim Koma, and journalist Leonie Benesch start the episode two weeks since we left them in the previous one. Apparently, nothing exciting happened on their trip from Italy to Yemen. However, upon reaching Yemen, there’s some travel trouble due to pirates. Tennant and Koma can travel across the desert by camel, but Tennant isn’t willing to risk Benesch’s life on the trek. More, he’s not ready to risk his best friend Jason Watkins’s daughter’s life on that trek. Tennant very much only thinks about Benesch in those terms.

Unfortunately, in addition to not vetting the guide he hires to take them across, he also doesn’t think about how being stranded in Yemen will play out for Benesch.

Luckily, they’ve happened across another Brit, albeit a disgraced one, played by Lindsay Duncan. She’s in exile from British society for apparently being a loose woman and then marrying a poor Arab (Faical Elkihel). When Tennant abandons Benesch, she gets help from Duncan and Elkihel; they’re more interested in rescuing Tennant and Koma from the desert than guiding them across, but Benesch isn’t being picky.

She takes the time to send father Watkins a telegram, which turns out to be a problem since it was Watkins who defamed Duncan in the first place. When Duncan challenges Watkins’s account later on, it forces Benesch and Tennant to reexamine truth outside the context of being wealthy white English people. It’s a short little scene with the two of them talking about it, but it’s quite good. Not as good as when Benesch and Duncan bond and bicker, but good. Tennant gets a bunch of action this episode but no real character development. Benesch gets most of it, then Koma gets some towards the end, and Tennant provides slight support to each. It’s just not his place to provide the support, which the episode makes clear. He’s just not the right person to do it.

For Benesch, the right person is Duncan. For Koma… well, he gives Tennant the chance to step up, but Tennant’s still British, after all. I’m not sure the show’s intentionally pacing out Tennant’s character development to have him become more sympathetic to a white British girl over a black Frenchman, but it does ring frustratingly true. Moreover, the indifference puts Koma in a quandary; with fellow white woman Duncan around to provide counsel, Benesch doesn’t need Koma’s.

The episode doesn’t talk about any of it, of course—well, except Duncan, it goes into length about Watkins’s assassination of her character, and then Elkihel will get a great monologue about the repercussions—but there’s so much frustrating tragic subtext.

This episode has some terrific director from Steve Barron and probably the series’s most successful effects sequence (a sand storm). Great support from Duncan and Elkihel, and Benesch’s best performance so far.

Hopefully, they’ll stop threatening to send Benesch home because she’s a woman after this episode. They promise they will, but I think they promised it in both previous episodes. And hopefully, there will be time for a relaxed episode at some point.

But even with adhering to its formula, “Around the World”’s truly superb.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e02

Last episode, it seemed very much like David Tennant, despite being top-billed, was just going to be “Around the World in 80 Days” ’s monied catalyst. He can afford this great adventure, but it’s going to be Ibrahim Koma and Leonie Benesch’s story. Koma’s a working-class (Black) Frenchman on the run from at least responsibility and maybe some other things; Benesch’s a woman in the Victorian world, where no one thinks she can do anything. Together, they’re going to help foppish, incapable Tennant accomplish his task while talking crap about him behind his back. Including Benesch going all-in on the era’s toxic masculinity, at least when it comes to Tennant. He’s a fraud, they’re sure, and Benesch has hung her ambitions on him.

Only in this episode it turns out Tennant’s very much going to be the lead. And the show’s going to directly interrogate the toxic expectations.

Tennant, Koma, and Benesch start the episode by crash landing their hot air balloon and catching an Italian train, where Tennant runs afoul of a self-made industrialist, Giovanni Scifoni. Scifoni doesn’t like British blue bloods, and he doesn’t like his son, Cristian De Vergori, bonding with Tennant. So a lot of the episode is just Scifoni browbeating Tennant into feeling like this “Around the World” adventure will inevitably fail. Koma and Benesch agree—amongst themselves—with Benesch embracing that toxic masculinity dismissal of Tennant. It makes Benesch unlikable, which the episode evens out with all the workers on the train hating her because she talks and she’s a woman. She’s hanging out with Koma, who’s hanging out with the train drivers and conductors, who like her when she’s decorative and not at all when she speaks. Well, except maybe conductor Simone Coppo, who ends up being compassionate. Mostly because Coppo’s really good.

After the initial dustups with Sciofoni, Tennant spends the episode pensive, making brusque observations about himself—while avoiding giving Benesch the background into his personal history she desires—and it’s all about the performance. Tennant’s captivating in his brooding silence. It’s an exceptional performance given the constraints of the project—it’s a TV adaptation of a Victorian novel, after all, and Tennant brings a whole new layer to it.

Of course, there are some other layers, thanks to Koma not really fitting in with the Italian working class. He’ll eventually win them over (and then reject their friendship thanks to his self-loathing). “Around the World” has layer upon layer, the eventual Tennant arc coming as a surprise, with the narrative distance gracefully shifting a quarter of the way into the episode. Again, Steve Barron’s direction is excellent.

Also, the technology aspect. There isn’t much in the way of expository dumps about how new technologies are changing lives. Instead, the show just shows the characters experiencing it and its newness. It’s very cool.

Of the main stars, Benesch gets the least material. First, she’s decorative to Tennant’s initial plotline—she’s allowed to socialize with the first-class passengers while Koma’s off with the workers. Then she’s support to Koma’s character development. Finally, both she and Koma are support to Tennant’s arc, as an unexpected crisis allows him to excel. There’s some foreshadowing with the crisis, just not with it being Tennant who’ll get to do anything with it.

Lots of good acting in the supporting cast, particularly Sciofoni. De Vergori’s a reasonably likable kid, but it’s because he’s sympathetic, not because he’s good. Instead, because Sciofoni’s an exceptional asshole of a dad.

At the end of the last episode, I was impressed with “Around the World in 80 Days”’s presentation of the time period and thoughtfulness in its characterizations, but at the end of this episode… the show’s going even more places. Particularly with Tennant. It’s probably too early to say, but this performance might be the best one of his I’ve ever seen. There’s something singular about it, which is even more impressive considering he’s doing it in an adaptation of a 150-year-old novel. Albeit an excellent adaptation.

The show’s gearing up to be something special.

Around the World in 80 Days (2021) s01e01

“Around the World in 80 Days” immediately showcases why adapting Victorian novels is a good idea right now. You can do whiz-bang CGI effects for them, but you can also make a white guy the hero and then have marginalized people in the supporting roles and get away with it. The white man was the inarguable king of the Western World. In “World” ’s case, the white guy is David Tennant, and the marginalized folks are Black guy Ibrahim Koma and white woman Leonie Benesch. However, no one really craps on Koma for being Black since he’s also French, and Frenchmen are much more shitting-on-worthy (according to “World”). Meanwhile, Benesch is busting ass to establish herself as a journalist, and her own father (Jason Watkins) is erasing her, giving her a male pseudonym.

Meanwhile, Tennant’s generally incapable and only survives thanks to Koma. And mercenary nuns.

The episode opens with Tennant receiving a postcard with a single word—“Coward”—with no postmark. We’ll find out he’s got a series of these postcards, though it’s unclear if they all have “Coward” written on them, and his fellow rich men think he’s, well, a coward. Koma is a waiter at Tennant’s club, which is why he’s in the story, and then Benesch’s there because dad Watkins is one of Tennant’s fellows at said club. The other important guy at the club is Peter Sullivan, who spends his time trying to humiliate Tennant whenever possible.

Benesch is upset with Watkins because he took her name off an article about how it’s now possible—thanks to technology—to circumnavigate the globe in eighty days. Tennant reads that article and, full of piss and vinegar from the postcard, declares he will attempt such a journey. Sullivan mocks him and publicly bets against him, setting Tennant up for failure. Thanks to some poor personal choices, Koma finds himself in need of a new position and becomes Tennant’s valet—unaware they’ll be traveling the globe—because Tennant’s existing butler, Richard Wilson, is old and useless.

Once Benesch finds out Tennant’s going to attempt the trip, she tells dad Watkins she’s tagging along, and he better not give her a dude’s name in her column recounting the adventure.

All this setup is rapid, and the real action of the episode happens once they get to Paris. The French people getting screwed over by their government. Koma’s been out of the country for some personal reasons—on the run from responsibility—so when they get there, and the police have closed the train station, stalling their trip on the first day, no one’s happy. Tennant’s incapable of fending for himself, Benesch doesn’t realize it’s actually dangerous, and Koma’s just trying to survive seeing revolutionary brother Loic Djani again.

Tennant spends much of the episode passive, only getting his steam going when he realizes Benesch is in danger and he can’t get friend Watkins’s daughter killed. Koma hasn’t been honest with Tennant about his history (or his present situation), so Tennant’s mostly unaware of that angle. But Benesch gets the whole story, which creates an interesting relationship between her and Koma.

It’s all solidly acted—Koma’s the best here, getting to be flashy and proactive while Tennant and Benesch are reactive—with superb production values and surprisingly strong direction from Steve Barron. I’m saying “surprisingly strong” because I only know Barron from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which I don’t remember being well-directed at all. Quite the opposite. But “Around the World in 80 Days” is well-directed, combining a nice sense of humor with harsh reality. I’m not sure what I was expecting—I haven’t read the Jules Verne novel, and if I’ve ever seen another adaptation, it’s been literal decades—but this one is a somber look at classism, sexism, and politics in the late nineteenth century.

The show’s off to a great start.