The review is for both parts.
This started with a bang in episode 1, but ended with a fizzle in episode 2.
The introduction of the Three Muskateers (descendants of some of the originals) was fun. Portos had some Inspector Clouseau funny lines. For example, while hanging upside down in the dungeon "I think we have a logistics problem..." But as usual with this series the fighting, except for the initial fight between Zorro and the Viscount, was poorly choreographed and executed.
As with other episodes in this series, it felt like there were two separate story ideas or even scripts thrown together.
Don Diego meets a countess who nurses him to health after the Viscount tortures him. As Zorro, Diego sees the countess in the Viscount's bed: she's in league with the bad guy! But nothing ever comes of it. At one point there's to be a meeting between Zorro and the Muskateers. The Countess offers her grounds as a spot for the meeting. Diego accepts: it seems he's doing it so as not to blow his cover. But just when it seems he's going to have to figure a way to avoid an ambush without revealing his identity, this element is dropped. There's no meeting at the Countess' place, there's no ambush, there's nothing.
In fact, the whole thread of the Countess secretly in league with the Viscount makes no sense. The Countess is not a friend of any of the Muskateers, she isn't a friend of the people, she doesn't openly oppose the Viscount. The subterfuge is nothing. It's like one writer wrote it in, but the other didn't know about it so ignored it.
In one scene two of the Muskateers run out of a bedroom to join a fight. "You started without us!" they scream. There's an abrupt cut to the two of them clearly in the middle of a fight in a stairwell.
Something is missing in between those scenes. The stairwell fight scene feels like a longer scene cut and pasted in where it didn't belong.
This story was shown out of order of filming, or out of order of scripts. The Alcalde died in the previous episode. But when this story begins, Don Diego (and thus Zorro) are taking a vacation because the Alcalde is out of town.
There are signs this story was a backdoor pilot for a Three Muskateers series. There are a lot of scenes minus Don Diego. And there's a long closing shot, preceding the pasted on Don Diego back in CA ending, of the Muskateers raising their swords in their famous "all for one and one for all" salute.
But the Muskateers aren't too interesting. Most importantly, they don't fight that well. Yet they boast and bluster as if their fighting skills are amazing. Some of their lines about how easy a fight was or how marvelous they are with the sword don't go with the fighting scenes. During fights the Muskateers are stumbling around barely holding their own with nameless soldiers. Or they're backing down from some henchman, who Zorro handles with ease. Again, it feels like two different writers had two different depictions in mind: one was the mighty Muskateers, the other was the bumbling Muskateers. The two were pasted together.
Zorro meets the Muskateers carries some weight. It's fun. But the weaknesses typical of this series pull what could be epic down to average at best.
This started with a bang in episode 1, but ended with a fizzle in episode 2.
The introduction of the Three Muskateers (descendants of some of the originals) was fun. Portos had some Inspector Clouseau funny lines. For example, while hanging upside down in the dungeon "I think we have a logistics problem..." But as usual with this series the fighting, except for the initial fight between Zorro and the Viscount, was poorly choreographed and executed.
As with other episodes in this series, it felt like there were two separate story ideas or even scripts thrown together.
Don Diego meets a countess who nurses him to health after the Viscount tortures him. As Zorro, Diego sees the countess in the Viscount's bed: she's in league with the bad guy! But nothing ever comes of it. At one point there's to be a meeting between Zorro and the Muskateers. The Countess offers her grounds as a spot for the meeting. Diego accepts: it seems he's doing it so as not to blow his cover. But just when it seems he's going to have to figure a way to avoid an ambush without revealing his identity, this element is dropped. There's no meeting at the Countess' place, there's no ambush, there's nothing.
In fact, the whole thread of the Countess secretly in league with the Viscount makes no sense. The Countess is not a friend of any of the Muskateers, she isn't a friend of the people, she doesn't openly oppose the Viscount. The subterfuge is nothing. It's like one writer wrote it in, but the other didn't know about it so ignored it.
In one scene two of the Muskateers run out of a bedroom to join a fight. "You started without us!" they scream. There's an abrupt cut to the two of them clearly in the middle of a fight in a stairwell.
Something is missing in between those scenes. The stairwell fight scene feels like a longer scene cut and pasted in where it didn't belong.
This story was shown out of order of filming, or out of order of scripts. The Alcalde died in the previous episode. But when this story begins, Don Diego (and thus Zorro) are taking a vacation because the Alcalde is out of town.
There are signs this story was a backdoor pilot for a Three Muskateers series. There are a lot of scenes minus Don Diego. And there's a long closing shot, preceding the pasted on Don Diego back in CA ending, of the Muskateers raising their swords in their famous "all for one and one for all" salute.
But the Muskateers aren't too interesting. Most importantly, they don't fight that well. Yet they boast and bluster as if their fighting skills are amazing. Some of their lines about how easy a fight was or how marvelous they are with the sword don't go with the fighting scenes. During fights the Muskateers are stumbling around barely holding their own with nameless soldiers. Or they're backing down from some henchman, who Zorro handles with ease. Again, it feels like two different writers had two different depictions in mind: one was the mighty Muskateers, the other was the bumbling Muskateers. The two were pasted together.
Zorro meets the Muskateers carries some weight. It's fun. But the weaknesses typical of this series pull what could be epic down to average at best.