Nautilus: What Lies Beneath

For decades, the giant squid attack in Richard Fleischer’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was fondly remembered as the peak of American kaiju-making. The new “reconceived” series held back the massive cephalopod for two full episodes. At least they do not make viewers wait much longer in “What Lies Beneath,” this week’s episode of creator James Dormer’s Nautilus, which airs tomorrow on AMC/AMC+.

There is an unwelcome East India Company “stowaway” aboard the Nautilus, but the only crewmember smart enough to expose him is young Blaster’s dog, Archie. However, Nemo has more pressing issues than a barking dog, like the depth charges from the Company’s Dreadnaught battleship at the end of the previous episode, and the giant squid they stirred up at the start of “What Lies Beneath.”

The undersea action is nicely rendered and their deliverance is rather clever, even if it stretches credulity. Unfortunately, the rest of “Beneath” reverts to the same stilted mistakes of the first two episodes. A new bad guy will be introduced, the “White Rajah.” He looks promising, because the great Richard E. Grant portrays him, but this time, he hardly seems to enjoy his villainy. Instead, Grant’s scenery-chewing appears to give him indigestion.

Nautilus, on AMC+

Before The Hunt for Red October, he was the best-selling literary submarine captain. In the first two episodes, calling him “Captain” Nemo rather overstates matters. Nevertheless, he has full command of the East India Mercantile Company’s experimental submersible. It starts with Jules Verne, but leans heavily into the kind of anti-colonialist ideology you would hear from a PhD candidate with zero real world experience. The Verne material is the stuff that works in the first two episodes of creator James Dormer’s Nautilus, which premieres tomorrow on AMC+.

Humility Lucas was educated as an engineer, but she won’t be able to live the life of science and industry she aspires to after her impending arranged marriage to a wastrel blueblood. She will not quite admit it yet, but when Nemo takes her as a hostage/survivor on the Nautilus, it represents a golden opportunity. Suddenly, she is turning cranks down in the engineering room with Gustave Benoit, the French inventor who created the sub.

As we see in flashbacks, Nemo was one of the prisoners-turned slave-laborers who constructed the Nautilus under Benoit’s direction. Originally, the East India Company promised him it would be a scientific vessel like the Calypso, but they predictably weaponized his creation, so they conspired together to hijack it.

Obviously, Nemo knows far more than a typical prisoner of the Raj. That is why Benoit relied so heavily on his expertise. However, the steadfastness of his current crew is rather suspect, because they had to leave in a hurry. Similarly, Lucas and governess-minder Loti were “rescued” after Nemo sunk the Company vessel delivering them to her fiancée, so they still harbor notions of escape.

The steampunky Verne-ish designs of the Nautilus interiors and exteriors are very cool. The underwater action scenes are also decently competent. Consider it one or two steps above the Hallmark literary classic adaptations of a few years back. Unfortunately, Dormer (sole credited writer for the first two episodes) shows more interest in exploring Victorian social mores and prejudices than pursuing adventure—at least thus far.

Shazad Latif broods charismatically as Nemo, but there is zero chemistry between him and Georgia Flood, as the nauseatingly entitled Lucas. We know they will get together, because that is the obvious cliché, but they have yet to build the heat to make it believable.

Around the World in 80 Days, on PBS

Ever since it was published in 1872, Jules Verne’s great adventure novel has delighted readers with its cavalcade of cameos for faded movie stars. At least that is the impression you would get from the Oscar winning 1956 movie. Regrettably, the cast of hundreds has not aged nearly as well as that of It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. In fact, the David Niven vehicle’s critical stock has declined steadily over time, greatly lowering the stakes for subsequent adaptations. Series creators Ashley Pharoah & Caleb Ranson take another crack at Verne’s globetrotting yarn Around the World in 80 Days, which premieres tomorrow night on PBS.

Do not panic. This series only runs eight episodes, rather eighty, averaging about ten days per installment. As is often the case, the first is the slowest. In this case, it is laboriously slow, but Steve Barron (director of the first four episodes and the finale) soon picks up the pace. Phileas Fogg is not a bad chap, but he leads an incredibly safe and dull existence. In time, we learn that things might have turned out differently for Fogg, but in any event, here he is: reading his newspaper in his usual armchair at the Reform Club. However, a chance discussion of an article discussing the possibility of circumnavigating the globe in eighty days leads to a hastily thought-out wager with his bullying “friend” Nyle Bellamy.

To accompany him, Fogg hires Passepartout, a former Reform Club waiter with a dodgy past, to sub for his aging valet. Whether he likes it or not, aspiring journalist Abigail Fix Fortescue will also follow his progress. She happens to be the daughter of her editor, Bernard Fortescue, Fogg’s friendlier friend at the club. Initially, Fogg wants nothing to do with her, but the three travelers inevitably must rely on each other to overcome the obstacles in their way—some of which will be the work of a thug hired by Bellamy, who faces bankruptcy if he does not win the 20-thousand-pound wager.

David Tennant is painfully nebbish and neurotic as Fogg, but that eventually makes his growth in later episodes somewhat rewarding. However, his Fogg really gets the short end of the stick. Instead of bringing Aouda home from India to be his wife, the only romance kindling in this series is the Tracy-and-Hepburn attraction shared by Fix (as she prefers to be called) and Passepartout. Presumably, the idea of saving Aouda from her late husband’s funeral pyre would be a non-starter in these woke times, so Fogg’s stopover in India merely involves his reluctant attempt to reunite an Indian Army deserter with his fiancée.

Ibrahim Kona and Leonie Benesch are okay as Passepartout and Fix, but their characters’ melodramas are totally forced and quickly grow tiresome. Ironically, one of the best performances comes from Peter Sullivan, playing the dishonorable Bellamy as a manipulative cad, but one not without guilt. A number of guest stars also shine, like Lindsay Duncan, who is terrific as Lady Jane Digby, a scandalous English lady, who married a Sheik. Perhaps the best work comes from Gary Beadle, who steals episode 7 as Bass Reaves, a former slave now serving as a U.S. Marshall, who must bring in a wanted leader of the Ku Klux Klan (there is some respectable western shoot-out action too).

Pharoah & Ranson include all the classic elements (the hot air balloon, trains aplenty) and slyly references Verne and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at various points. There are exotic locales and villains as well as decent forward momentum, but it needed more of an ever-so British stiff-upper-lip. Everybody here is way too interested in expressing their feelings when there is 20K pounds to be won. Still, it would be interesting to see the second season the conclusion clearly teases. Inconsistent but still recommended as some late 19^th Century adventuring, Around the World in 80 Days starts tomorrow night (1/2) on PBS.