The The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne

(Originally Published on January 4, 2001 by zealot.com)
by Andrew Kozma

This is a message from the future. Change the channel while you still can. This show will be gone soon enough.

This is a message from another future. One where The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne gains a small, but devoted, following (re: cult) in its first few episodes. Despite many flaws in the initial offering (re: premiere) it steadily improves and begins to evolve into a great show with distinctive and interesting characters, a wonderfully contiguous and varied plot, and then is cancelled (re: G vs. E).

The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (hereafter referred to as TSAOJV (pronounced Se-ow-juh-vuh)) is wonder of mood and imagery. Gavin Scott, the creator, has created a show whose style is highly romantic with almost tangible light, bright and living colors, and high contrasts. Unfortunately, it's also a show where the ideas are more real than the actuality. The concept of the show bleeds through the screen and it feels good, as though it could be great, but it's dressed poorly with hackneyed dialogue and choppy editing.

Okay, so now that you've got the general impression here of what you'll be watching, I suppose some background is in order. TSAOJV (see above) is about Jules Verne (Chris Demetral), the mid-19th century French science-fiction writer, and takes the (theoretical) position that he actually experienced everything he wrote about, but changed the details so as not to offend those in power. The other characters are Phileas Fogg (Michael Praed), a character from Verne's "Around the World in Eighty Days", Rebecca Fogg (Francesca Hunt), Phileas' second cousin and a British secret agent, and Passepartout (Michel Courtemanche), Phileas' valet whose name means passkey - I'm not sure why. The four team up in order to foil the dastardly plans of the League of Darkness, a group eager to use Verne's visions of the future to take over the world, apparently because they can't think up any plans of their own (which seems hard to believe considering they concoct a way to download Verne's brain with a device resembling a stiff belt with nails driven through it).

Phew. Glad that paragraph's over with. You shouldn't be, though, because you'll need the information above if your to successfully navigate the continuity minefield that is TSAOJV (just pronounce it in your head… come on, it's easy). Not to say that the episode doesn't make sense. It does, near perfectly, as long as you've read the press release. See, the episode itself doesn't explain much… and it doesn't help that none of the main characters are together until the last five minutes, so the entire episode consists of the editor (who has the visual equivalent of Tourettes) splicing together short bits of each character's plotline in a desperate attempt to have the whole shebang cohere.

I'm sure I'm making it sound worse than it is. But then again I'll never know, since I read the press release beforehand. My mom, who watched it with me, thought TSAOJV was interesting but didn't understand what was going on, really. The League of Darkness is never mentioned, though the main baddie, Count Gregory (Rick Overton), is a focus of the plot. Arago (David Warner), a professor/scientist/really-it's-never-clear, has an important role as Verne's mentor but, according to the episode list, he appears to never appear again (Ha ha - good trick, that). Generally, things seemed as slapdash as the headless horseman in a haberdashery (Hat shop. You're right, I just wanted to use the word).

But seriously, why doesn't Verne have a French accent? Okay, so they couldn't find a French actor. They'll just use American accents for all the French. Except perhaps for the cute girl that Verne has his eye on. She'll have a French accent. While we're at it, why don't we give an English count an American accent, that'll even things out. And I know Michel Courtemanche (Passepartout) sounds like a French name, but the few times he speaks he sounds Spanish. And then, to change the subject and top it all off, there is a wonderful use of slow motion, as well as a slowed down, "NOOOOOOO!" TSAOJV pulls out all the stops.

Things aren't all bad, though. All the main characters are young , attractive, and personable (except maybe Passepartout, but then we don't see much of him). The images can really be stunning and there is a definite style at work here. Some of the scenes are simply amazing, visually, and the whole production drips with mood (sometimes too much). Also, TSAOJV is filmed in a way that reminds me of Dr. Who, which can't be a bad thing.

Then again, there are the countless clichés (One… One disgruntled hero (crash of thunder)). Some of that is expected in the start of a new series when it's just beginning to find it's feet, but these lines that Arago delivers to Verne when he's in the clutches of Count Gregory should've been excised: "Only you can defeat him." And "The future is yours, Jules Verne." Luckily, there is a gleam of hope even in the darkest depths of TSAOJV's banality. Phileas' last line is "I have a feeling our adventures are just beginning," and Passepartout looks at him as though he, too, can't believe the script.

This was a message from the future. I have experienced what you will experience and have sent back warning.

This was a message from the other future. Have I mentioned that David Warner (Arago) was in Tron (as Ed Dillinger)? Maybe it's worth watching just for that.

-Andrew Kozma