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Right now, Houdiniphiles are asking themselves: is a poor rendering of our hero Harry better than no rendering at all?
Some of our esteemed colleagues in the blogosphere say yes, it's all good, who cares if he looks like an idiot, it'll at least bring his name through to the next generation.
We dissent. The reason Houdini is worth remembering is that he represents all that a human can be. Through sheer grit, brains and self-discipline he overcame all obstacles. He proved that superhuman is real, while supernatural is fantasy.
We can now report that the voice of the people supports us. The latest ratings are in and Fox's mini-series Houdini & Doyle continues to plummet. Judging by the ratings, it's just about the worst show on television:
The program is hemorrhaging audience, at the rate of one quarter to one third per week. The perceptive review in Variety explains why:
...Spring gives the broadcast nets chance a chance to clean out their attics and get rid of dust-gathering items they have no real use for. And that brings us to the new drama “Houdini and Doyle.”
Fox has committed — quite possibly overcommitted — to the idea of using existing intellectual property as the basis for many, if not most, of its new shows; if the network can shoehorn the devil, Ichabod Crane or parts of the premise of “Minority Report” into a cop procedural, all the better. This time around, 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.
....Rather ponderously, the series does its best to recall the basic dynamic of the “The X-Files,” the king of Fox procedurals, then and now.
....Despite the energy of [co-stars] Stephen Mangan and Michael Weston ... installments of “Houdini and Doyle” don’t display a real spark. That’s partly because it’s never quite explained why the two keep working together in light of their many other commitments, or why the London police allow them to regularly interfere with investigations.
Unlike Mulder and Scully ... this unlikely duo doesn’t have the kind of chemistry that can carry them past some palpable rough spots. The explanation is simple enough: Though parts of the show are tricked up enough to have potential, “Houdini and Doyle” lacks magic.
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