Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Cast: Lisette Olivera, Zuri Reed, Antonio Cipriano, Jordan Rodrigues, Jake Austin Walker, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Brenda Wool, Lyndon Smith, Armando Riesco, Darri Ingolfsson, Salena Qureshi, Dustin Ingram, Tommy Savas, Joseph D. Reitman, Jacob Vargas, Alejandro Edda, Patrick Brennan, Kathleen York, Vanessa Vasquez, Chris Browing, Gariel ‘G -Rod’ Rodriguez, Jay Montalvo, Ben Taylor, Derek Russo, Neal Kodinsky, Shane Paitlow, Tevin Marbeth, Davod Kellaway, Derek Evans.
There is an insatiable thirst in all of us for adventure, some may have pushed it down so far that it is barely recognisable as an agent of free-spirited drive for hunting down the unique, but it is there, it just awaits the right circumstances in which to rise up and grab the attention of the soul who has been denying, ignoring the call in which to undertake a voyage of self-discovery, to be a National Treasure.
There is almost nothing quite like the thrill of a treasure hunt, pitting your wits against clues that could lead to danger, trails that could harm, for in the exploration of the unknown we find ourselves, the depths we will go to to obtain the piece that has become the focus of our obsession. It is why films such as the early Indiana Jones stories were box office gold, Lord of the Rings, The 39 Steps, they are all grand, exiting, they push the levels of human interaction, for who doesn’t want to be the one to prove their worth above all others as they gaze upon an icon, the first set of human eyes to behold the past in a thousand years.
These films exemplify the mystique, but how often do they transfer to television series with the same assured quality that the average person can identify with; and this is where the ten-part series, National Treasure: Edge Of History falls down and fails ultimately to deliver a satisfying quest to sate the adventure juices.
The fact that it has only tenuous links to the two successful films starring Nicholas Cage is bothersome, unlike The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles which built its own name in the illustrious shadow of its cinematic big brother, National Treasure: Edge Of History has little to qualify it for as a piece of the larger picture; in name only it seems the adventure has its purpose.
This is not meant to demean the series, indeed without the name it would have stood straighter, more in tune with the tale it was, unfortunately, dragging out.
For an adventurer to work there has to be a darker side to the protagonist, again to Indiana Jones we see a complex side in which he took advantage of the young Marion Ravenwood, barely legal to have such a relationship with, but one that gave his character the belief that if the call was needed, he would take another person’s life to save the day. There is no sense of that at all within the series, not from the intrepid heroes who are all achingly squeaky clean, and it is only perhaps in Breeda Wool’s interpretation of the classic henchmen in the character Kacey Hasler, that gives any depth to the moral quandary the team find themselves in.
The clues are the big star, the back story of the Native American rebellions and secrets held as Europeans look to destroy various civilisations in the ‘New World’; but it is not enough to save what could have been a glorious reintroduction the National Treasure franchise, especially with the clamour for a third tale involving Benjamin Franklin Gates to come to fruition.
A distinctly average series, one beset with being set in a period of time when adventuring and relic hunting is seen as being an act of desecration, even when it is done for the noblest of intentions, the search for truth and memory restored. National Treasure: Edge Of History does not live up to its potential.
Ian D. Hall