Musketeering
Continuation of this comment thread
There has never been a proper Athos! I don't know why. I love him to bits in the books but I don't understand why they can't recreate that in adaptations. Would it be so hard for a dark and handsome broody character? The 3M is so old that Athos must have invented the trope of angst mysterious good looking guy with a dark background and a heart of gold.
Tom Burke is fine, and he's growing on me (I no longer think he's ruining everything every time he appears on screen). But he looks wrong and acts wrong and is just not my Athos.
I agree that the tv characters are oversimplified into "good guys" and agree that it's probably the only way it would have worked. It's hard to convey the sly, quirky, sometimes downright wrong-in-an-unsexy-way and criminal instances sympathetically on mainstream tv. And it's a shame because we miss out on Aramis' vanity (one of my favorite lines: And then,' said Aramis, pinching his ear to make it red, as he rubbed his hands to make them white.) and Porthos' pride and d'Artagnan's cunning. In return though, we also don't bring into canon Athos' beating of Grimaud or their 10 day wtf drunken pigout at the inn, or d'Artagnan's super not ok rape by deception of Milady.
And like you I am particularly sad to see that Aramis has lost his church storyline because that's such a large part of who he is. He also seems to be less into schemes and intrigue and more a man of action, which is lovely to see but again, much more two dimensional.
I'm hoping S2 is better than the first and that it will allow the stories and characters to grow armed develop.