Series Review: Around the World in 80 Days

Realistic, romantic and re-imagined miniseries about a math genius enthralls

Recently, I watched the eight-episode PBS television series Around the World in 80 Days. For a light yet entertaining diversion, it is good. It’s not realistic, deep or particularly thought-provoking. But it plants a seed in protagonist Fogg, portrayed by executive producer David Tennant, and lets the audience take interest in the extraordinary endeavor of an otherwise plain man.

Indeed, the plot-theme — whether a weak man of ability can remake his own character — propels Around the World in 80 Days. The story re-imagines the 1873 literary classic by French author Jules Verne. Previously, David Niven played Londoner Fogg in a fine and underappreciated motion picture adaptation (which, incidentally, was awarded the Best Picture Oscar for 1956.) There was an awful remake with bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger which is not worth a single thought.

This version, financed by France, Germany and Italy with several directors and producers, jettisons Jules Verne’s plot and theme. Powers that be add a female journalist character as a co-lead. Fogg’s French valet character, Jean Passepartout, is changed from white to black. Despite egalitarian casting and re-making according to predominantly collectivist politics, the series — retaining certain plot points, such as the title goal being based on a gentlemen’s club wager — enthralls.

The journey remains interesting as the trio circumnavigates the world. Fogg is a flawed man of means and mathematics. To what extent he’s able to fulfill his projections is less at issue than what moves him. A scene in which Fogg attempts to rescue a boy based on Fogg’s confidence in his ability to solve math problems is the series’ best. There are other excellent scenes. Among the adventures are an island desertion, a timely New York City rendezvous, intrigue in the Arab world, a moral dilemma involving a conflict pitting romantic love against military loyalty in the Far East and a father’s love for his daughter. There are cars, stagecoaches, trains, ships and daring feats of danger and, of course, the hot air balloon with which many associate the story. The balloon tie-in is derivative of Pixar’s Up. Of course, the feisty female and the black valet flirt. Valet, writer and engineer make an engaging trio.

The screenwriting transcends the obviousness of certain plot points. Always at stake is the question of one man’s character. Tennant’s Fogg reminds me — as does solving the main mystery, an anonymous accusation that Fogg is a coward — of an aspect of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. In particular, with Fogg’s journey as a kind of legend of a traveling second-hander, of architect Peter Keating and his interest in Catherine Halsey. In this re-purposed Around the World in 80 Days, Fogg’s quest amounts to a dramatization of what might’ve become of Keating in a best-case scenario which is somewhat romantic and realistic. Add a steampunk aesthetic, an insistent musical score co-composed by Hans Zimmer, humor, pathos and a carefully threaded theme about living a whole life on time and Around the World in 80 Days closes the loop to make you root for its voyagers.