Gunpowder - Mini-Series Review
This review of the mini-series Gunpowder is spoiler-free!
Kit Harington. If you don't know that name by now what in the world are you doing? One of the major stars of Game of Thrones, he has become one of the best-known actors around the globe. HBO saw fit with their star to use him in another series, that show being Gunpowder. Being a mini-series, it allowed Kit to participate without it factoring too deeply into the filming of Game of Thrones. For most fans, seeing Kit Harington in another show while Thrones was off the air was enough to get people in the door on the show. For me though, I felt a bit of concern over whether or not this show was just a means to keep Harington in the spotlight. So, let's talk about Gunpowder, and what it does right and wrong!
Let's start with a discussion of the story of Gunpowder and what it's based on. This show is all about, you guessed it, the Gunpowder plot. For those of you who don't know, Gunpowder is a failed attempt to kill the King of England by a group of English Catholics. Led by Robert Catesby, these men sought to have their religion restored to prominence as King James was a Protestant. Truth be told, the show focuses more on the punishment that Catholics received and the building up to that plot than the plot itself. It's really all about Kit Harington also, as other iconic characters are introduced in the show, but left in the dust compared to Catesby. For me, it was just a bit too slow as a whole. Being three episodes, there's a lot of time spent building the characters and not the show as a whole. There were a few powerful moments in each episode, but Episode 3 is the only one of the group to really feel like it had a goal in mind.
Speaking of characters, let us talk about the only people worth discussing. The first and most obvious being Robert Catesby (Kit Harington). As I've stated multiple times, this show is really all about Kit Harington. His portrayal of Catesby fits closely with how he portrays Jon Snow, but he has a bit stronger leadership qualities and that is nice to see from him. The shame here though is that the character just feels all too similar to Snow and means he doesn't have a large amount of wiggle room for his performance. The other major character in the series is Anne Vaux. Liv Tyler portrays Catesby's cousin who takes a lot of the brunt of the pressure from the English crown. I consider her to be the emotional punch of the story, as she has the majority of the scenes of that kind.
Here though, let's talk about the problems, and boy are there many, that come with Gunpowder. As I've really pushed quite often, this show just seems to be a showcase for Kit Harington as an actor. The fact though that Catesby and Snow are shown to be so similar means that you really just get more time with Harington and don't get to see his range. Along with this, the show just is too deeply deliberately paced. There's too much world building and there's not really any time spent in building up the Gunpowder plot itself. For me, I believe this story could have been done much better if the group involved in the plot was viewed as equals in the eyes of the creative party doing the series. Overall, Gunpowder really just doesn't have enough things going with it to make it a worthy usage of Harington.
As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, Gunpowder falls under the pressure of trying to create a series that makes good use of Harington's acting prowess. It also manages to be far too slow of a series and attempts to push every last bit of detail into the final episode. The misuse of Guy Fawkes, a famous historical person and an inspiration for the V mask, also plays a role for me in the downfall of this show. For those of us who want something exciting in the downtime between seasons of Game of Thrones, this sadly isn't it. Check out Gunpowder if you want to see more great work from Harington, but don't expect his range to be stretched and a character that is unique to him to be used.
