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Critic Reviews
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Though lightly entertaining, the series needs a bit more character grounding. So far Weston and Mangan are quite good as the flamboyant famous characters, but the scripts will have to flesh them out more. That may never happen.
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The series gets off to a sloppy start, but with two solid leads and an intriguing premise, Houdini and Doyle is worth investigating.
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It’s not necessarily bad, understand, just surprisingly underwhelming considering it’s called Houdini & Doyle. One expects fireworks; instead we get consternation.
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Houdini & Doyle likely won’t set anyone’s heart aflutter or the ratings on fire. But it looks like a passable spring/summer diversion and also just a bit of a history lesson on what these two guys were all about.
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A dusty, ghostly imitation--theme-park TV at its most square and earnest. [6 May 2016, p.50]
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Unfortunately, the mix for Doyle too often also includes “dim-witted,” thanks to the script, and “lethargic,” thanks to an unenthusiastic performance from the usually more animated Mangan.
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The sets and costumes are great. Now, the mysteries need to rise to the occasion.
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It is less exciting than it sounds.
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From the music to the dialogue, Houdini & Doyle seems laughably flashy given the characters involved and time period (London, 1901). But the plot is fairly standard in its procedural trappings.
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Fox has shoved Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle into a crime-solving partnership that anchors a 10-episode series which aims for a generally light tone, but too often is merely amiably pallid.
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There are decent performances buried in Houdini & Doyle (especially the always-good Weston) and the design values aren’t bad for network TV, but the writing isn’t memorable enough for the program to stand out in an increasingly-crowded landscape.
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It’s a forgettable time-filler that doesn’t aspire to anything more.
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An interesting, compelling idea for a TV series. Too bad a boilerplate cop procedural had to be the series they got instead.
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The depictions of Houdini and Doyle never seem authentic. The mysteries aren't particularly riveting. And the mix of fact and fancy is anything but magical.
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The mysteries--involving nuns possibly murdered by a ghost in the pilot, and deaths connected to a faith healer in a subsequent episode--are too thinly constructed to hold your interest, and the characters are likewise one-dimensional and dull, quite a trick considering how interesting the actual Conan Doyle and Houdini were.
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They may sound like a jokey law firm, but any amusement to be had in the fictionalized odd-couple crime solving partnership of Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle is sadly short-lived in this stilted Canadian-British import. [2-8 May 2016, p.19]
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The period trappings are cool. The show looks great. But it feels false. And for science fiction to work--for drama to work--you have to be able to buy into the premise. That's pretty much impossible with Houdini & Doyle--a crazy idea that just doesn't work.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 12 out of 27
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Mixed: 9 out of 27
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Negative: 6 out of 27
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Jun 7, 2016
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Jul 4, 2016
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Jul 3, 2016