Muddled mysteries foil Fox’s ‘Houdini & Doyle’
Mishmash tosses in dash of everything but originality, logic
Escape this. To put matters as charitably as possible, the broadcast networks simply aren’t sure what we want anymore — which is why they seem ever more inclined to take bits and pieces of everything we’ve ever wanted and mash them together. You like bickering buddies solving mysteries, with a female love interest thrown in for good measure? You like stories that take famous historical figures and turn them into detectives? You like stories about unusual and unlikely police consultants? (And with Lucifer, Bones, Sleepy Hollow and Rosewood, Fox certainly assumes you do.)
Well then, you’re in luck, as Fox’s British import Houdini &
Doyle (Monday, 9 ET/PT, out ee of four) ticks all those boxes and a few more, including the current trend of repurposing characters and properties. If, however, you’re searching for a shred of originality, a real feel for the time period or a lick of sense, well, your luck just ran out.
Our heroes here are escape artist Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) and Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle ( Episodes’ Stephen Mangan), who team up to solve murders that have a paranormal bent. They do so in 1901 London with the help of Scotland Yard’s first female constable, Adelaide (Rebecca Liddiard), assigned to help them by her reluctant boss ( Black
Adder’s Tim McInnerny, who’s wasted here).
In case you’re wondering, Houdini and Doyle actually did form a brief friendship — though not until 1920, and it wasn’t to catch murderers. But never mind. The Houdini and Doyle you meet on Fox aren’t people. They’re merely famous names with opposing traits attached: “brash,” “skeptical” and “womanizer” for Houdini; “proper,” “spiritual” and “family man” for Doyle.
Unfortunately, the mix for Doyle too often includes “dimwitted,” thanks to the script, and “lethargic,” thanks to an unenthusiastic performance from the usually more animated Mangan. It is true that Doyle had a deepseated belief in the supernatural, a belief opposed by Houdini, who had no use for mediums and spiritualists. But the two episodes made available for preview make Doyle seem almost hopelessly gullible — until, of course, the script requires him to chuck his gullibility and mimic his Holmesian creation.
In their first case, Doyle is convinced the murder of a nun was committed by an avenging ghost. In another, he’s certain God is the killer, punishing those who dare to doubt a faith healer. In both cases, Houdini plays an impatient, mocking Scully, of Fox’s own The X-Files, to Holmes’ sweetly sincere Mulder — while Adelaide vacillates between the two extremes.
The real Doyle would probably be appalled by the flimsiness of the mysteries offered here.
Still, as a popular author, he might also understand the pressures television networks are under to find an audience, and the desire viewers have to find something, anything, to fill the summer holes about to be left by the regular TV season’s departing series.
Whether Houdini’s brand of mild escapism fills the bill is a mystery waiting for you to solve.