The Musketeers - Season 1

It's about honour, romance, and four sexy guys in a lot of leather.

Like the big brother to the network's Atlantis, last year's BBC America production of The Musketeers is a very loose adaptation of Dumas' novels, wrapped up in a sumptuous parade of vaguely period frocks and not remotely period leather jackets. Before I move on to the current second series, here is my round up of series 1.

D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino), a brooding and dashing minor Gascon landowner, comes to Paris and joins up with the elite King's Musketeers, here depicted as a sort of go-to special forces unit with a signature shoulder spauldron in place of an actual uniform and a sufficiently bad ass reputation that it's hard to see why people are so willing to attack them. "Kill the Musketeers!" they cry, like someone in a modern day thriller shouting: "It's the SAS! Get 'em!" The best of the best of the best are of course the brooding and tortured Athos (Tom Burke), the brooding and powerful Porthos (Howard Charles) and the brooding and soulful Aramis (Santiago Cabrera).

They also brood who only sit and wait.

Their chief is the brooding and conflicted Captain Treville (Hugo Speer) and their main adversaries the brooding and subtle Cardinal Richlieu (Peter Capaldi) and his agent the brooding and deadly Milady de Winter (Mamie McCoy.) Ultimately, they all work for the brooding and petulant King Louis (Ryan Gage) and his missus the brooding and resentful Queen Anne (Alexandra Dowling.)

D'Artagnan lodges with Constance Bonacieux (Tamla Kari) and her husband. Constance is almost unique in Paris in that she almost never broods, at least not darkly as everyone else is given to.

In case you're not into guys.

The arc of the series concerns Milady's machinations against Athos (her former husband who condemned her for murdering his brother) and his friends. Subplots include the affairs between D'Artagnan and Constance and Aramis and the Queen, and Treville's complicated history in Richlieu's affairs.

For what it is, The Musketeers is a pretty decent series. It looks gorgeous - if only vaguely in-period - and is packed with pretty people and action set-pieces. The leads are all good at what they do, and establish strong - if simple - personalities for the four heroes (Athos is dark and serious, Porthos is fierce, D'Artagnan hot-headed and Aramis loves the ladeez.) An interesting quirk is that while Porthos is once more the brawling heavyweight of the team, he is portrayed as neither fat nor drunk. He is also the everyman figure, coming up from the streets instead of being a gentleman by birth. This is especially interesting as he is also the only regular black character.