When Syfy’s four-hour event, The Phantom [Sunday, 7/6], airs this weekend, there will be some who hate it because of its deviation from the way the character has always been done. A female Guran? Gasp! A worldwide multi-national information gathering force? Never! [The Phantom is the lone wolf of lone wolves!] A new, high-tech suit??? Blasphemy!!! Not hasn’t this Phantom spent his life in training for the day when he would become the latest crusader against evil in all its forms, he isn’t even aware that he is one of the Phantom’s line!
The result is an-all-in-one-night mini-series that respects the traditions of Lee Falk’s legendary character without striving to slavishly recreate them. Instead, we get to see the last of Kit Walker’s line learn about his destiny in a way that honors those traditions while bringing the character into the 21st Century with a new irreverence borne of a character born in one world who must adapt to a new, far more perilous one – or die.
Christopher Moore [Ryan Carnes] has nightmares – a beautiful woman; a car chase at night; a car plunging into cold, dark waters… The nightmares make no sense: Chris is a semester away from graduating from Columbia Law; he has parents who love him enough to ground him to make sure he studies for exams; he has a best friend, Geordie, who shares his love of parkour, and has just met the love of his life, Renny [Cameron Goodman] – whom he last saw in sixth grade. Life is good.
Then he comes home to find his folks have set him and Renny up – since he’s grounded, they’ve arranged to go out for the evening, leaving the couple to enjoy some pasta and get to know each other better. After he walks her home, he’s kidnapped – and meets Guran [Sandrine Holt] and the mysterious Abel Vandermaark [Jean Marchand]. He learns that his real name is Kit Walker and his family has fought evil and oppression of centuries.
When he returns home, he finds his parents dead [very messily so] and two men in the house. He eludes one of them [the other dies trying the leap that Chris/Kit made earlier in the story] and rejoins Guran and Vandermaark. Before you can say global conspiracy, he is whisked away to Bangalla.
Intercut with these events, we see a housewife making a cake and, after being prompted by what looks like a cable box, adding rat poison to the mix. We also meet Rhatib Singh [Cas Anvar] and the board of directors of the Singh Brotherhood – a more modern take on The Phantom’s ancient foes – and Dr. Bella Lithia [Isabella Rossellini], the Brotherhood’s mind control specialist.
With the major exposition out of the way, all hell breaks loose – but even the exposition is sandwiched between action scenes, so it goes down pretty easily. Writers Daniel Knauf and Charles Knauf [Carnivale] include much of the lore from the Lee Falk strip: the Skull Cave; the skull ring that marks evildoers; the crossed swords ring whose wearers are under his protection; the line of succession, all named Kit Walker; the journals of The Phantom [going back to 1536] – even the purple spandex suit puts in an appearance [though the new Kit refuses to wear it].
The big changes are treated as no big deal – the high-tech underground base of The Phantom’s international organization; the female Guran, the body armor/suit. In the case of the new suit, the explanation is that Kit’s late father ordered its creation because he, too, hated the traditional one [“too theatrical,” Vandermaark explains]. There is no mention of the tribe of pygmies from which Guran was chosen as The Phantom’s chief advisor – the only nod to that part of the tale is when a group of children lead Chris/Kit to the Skull Cave for the first time.
What matters more, is that the mini-series is a smart, well-paced adventure that incorporates new variations on the original into something that is simultaneously high-tech and new, and swashbuckling. Given the nature of The Phantom as a backdoor pilot for a prospective series, the main characters are well developed while the villains are less so [even Singh, also the last of his line, is pretty much your standard pirate – only in a suit and tie].
Director Paolo Barzman [The Last Templar] keeps things moving at a good pace and utilizes heightened color palettes [Kit’s nightmares], split screen [particularly effective in the parkour scene and the development of the mind controlled characters] and a mix of close and medium shots for character, and swooping pans to accentuate the action.
Taken as the latest chapter in the saga of The Phantom, the mini-series is appropriately mindful of the characters traditions but adds a certain irreverence that keeps things from veering into camp. Carnes makes Chris/Kit an entertaining protagonist and has extremely good chemistry with Goodman. The Kit/Renny romance has the feel of destiny to it, underlining the mythic nature of The Phantom without hitting us over the head with it.
Anvar doesn’t get to play Singh with a lot of range, but he does exude the kind of manic confidence that makes for a good villain. It’s Rossellini, though, who gives her fairly sketchy character unexpected depth. Lithia’s a scientist, and a good one – she knows what her inventions can do, and what they can’t. Her frustration at being overruled in their use causes unexpected sympathy [if only for a moment].
There’s so much more to The Phantom than I expected [and I’ve barely touched on all of the significant events of the mini-series] that I find myself wanting to know what happens next. That’s always a sign of good story, well told.
Final Grade: A-