Once upon a time, in the land of summer television programming, the only things people had to watch were sporting events and reruns of network shows. It was a time of great apathy toward programming that hung over the land until a new season would appear in September.
That all changed for the networks when the ogre of cable came stomping into summer with original programming. Viewers were happy. Networks were not. To fight back the assault by cable, the networks started airing more original programming in the summer.
Some of it, such as the CBS world-saving "Salvation," features enough solid acting, writing and visual effects to make one wonder why the program was relegated to the summer months. It's obvious with other shows, such as the new CW Network eight-episode series "Hooten & the Lady," why the less-competitive summer schedule is the best time to air.
"Hooten & the Lady" follows the adventurous antics of a mismatched pair as they travel the world looking for historical treasure. Hooten (Michael Landes) is in it for the money while the Lady (Ophelia Lovibond) goes on each quest for the love of history.
These two follow a very familiar blueprint for this adventure tale. Hooten is a scruffy treasure hunter who is usually only a few steps ahead of those who want to do him harm. He's an equal opportunity offender so both the good and bad guys are chasing him.
During one near fatal encounter, Hooten meets Lady Alex Spencer-Parker (Lovibond), a representative of the British Museum who has traveled to South America to find the lost campsite of Sir Percy Fawcett, the British explorer who went missing in 1925 while on a quest to find the Lost City of Gold. She's a lover of history and certain an exhibit on Fawcett would help stave off potential budget cuts at the museum.
The meet cute for the pair comes when they are captured by a South American tribe where they are about to be tortured and/or killed. It's obvious they escape this fate and this standard get-together makes them partners in the search through the Amazon jungle for the lost site. Jungle heat isn't the only thing they face. As with almost every production in this genre, the sexual tension between the pair is almost as thick as the foliage.
The pair will travel in future episodes to Rome, Egypt, Moscow and Bhutan where the stories will be a mix of near misses and kisses. It's never a matter of whether or not these two will get together but when it will happen. It all comes down to how much chemistry they have as to whether the audience will hang around.
There aren't fireworks with these two but there are a few sparks.
Landes brings little new to the loveable rogue character, from his beard stubble to willingness to take chances. The actor, best known for works such as "Gold" and "Burlesque," is dashing enough but doesn't fill the screen with the kind of machismo this kind of role demands.
Lovibond brings the kind of spunkiness she showed playing Kitty Winter as a recurring character in the CBS drama "Elementary." That plays well toward her character who is rebelling against being part of pampered British society. She's determined, head-strong and naive enough about the real world to make it necessary she has a partner on her adventures.
Just like Landes, Lovibond is good but comes across more like a second choice for the role. She at least gives the performance a nice energy.
"Hooten & the Lady" offers nothing that hasn't been played out in a much more exciting manner from "The Jewel of the Nile" to any of the Indiana Jones movies (including the wretched "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). It would have been so refreshing to have the female character be the maverick adventurer and the male be the bookworm. That would have made all of the action and emotional moments play with such an original tone that a slot in the fall would have been possible.
Instead, "Hooten & the Lady" takes a pair of likable actor, puts them in uninspired situations and tries to hide behind a decent amount of action. Had the series debuted in the fall, it would have died a quick ratings death. As a summer series, it's certainly better than watching reruns.
