In Review: National Treasure: Edge of History (S1 – EP 1 & 2) I’m a Ghost and The Treasure Map

Synopsis: In I’m a Ghost and The Treasure Map we get introduced to Jess Valenzuela and her friends when she finds out that her late father who is assumed dead was a guardian to a valuable Aztec relic, which could lead to the much larger Montezuma’s treasure.

The Story

With only the loosest of connections to the original two National Treasure films. Edge of History has quite a lot of world-building to do in order to start a whole new treasure hunt, which involves Incan, Aztec and Mayan relics. To do this we get introduced to Jess Valenzuela’s father who finds an old Aztec Puzzle box, which he smuggles away from harm with his wife and baby daughter. This sets up the story, which then picks up twenty years later where we meet Jess who is living as an undocumented immigrant in the USA and going from job to job. We get introduced to Jess and her friends during an adventure they have in an escape room in which we see Jess’s uncanny knack for puzzle-solving.

After this introductory scene, Jess finds a link to a Freemason and former FBI Agent called Peter Sadusky who fans of the movie series will remember as the FBI officer that captured Benjamin Franklin Gates who stole the Declaration of independence in order to solve his puzzle. Having discovered a link to Sadusky while going through junk at her workplace Jess pays Sadusky a visit. As the two meet Sadusky points out the significance of the medallion that Jess is wearing, which was her father’s. He tells Jess that the medallion is a symbol that is worn by a group of guardians who guard the keys and various relics that lead to a great treasure. Intrigued Jess looks into this and soon finds herself and her friends being threatened by a group of hostile treasure hunters who are led by a British woman called Billie. And thus a race begins between Jess and her friends and Billie and her hoods to find Montezuma’s treasure. 

Acting

Skewed at a slightly younger audience than the two movies. This series features a fairly youngish cast, which is led by Lisette Olivera who plays Jess and seems to be much more grounded than her friends. Harvey Keitel reprises his role of Peter Sadusky who is the only connection between this series and the films, but he is soon killed off after Jess meets him. However, we do get introduced to his son who is a wannabe country singer that slowly warms up to Jess. However, he has a lot of issues to get through before he does.

Catherine Zeta-Jones has a big role to play as Billie who leads the villains of the show and seems to be playing it in a rather pantomime way as there is very little in the way of subtlety to the character, but it is a fun character to watch. So there is room for growth.

Overall

I’m a Ghost and The Treasure Map do a fairly good job of setting up the world and the characters, but the characters surrounding Jess felt a little like they could have been taken from pretty much any random CW show. Hopefully, this improves as the series progresses. The mythology within the series is fairly strong and well-executed and I really enjoyed seeing the visuals that correlated with how Jess’s thought processes worked when solving the puzzles.

Overall. A pretty good start with room for improvement. Out of the two episodes, which included I’m a Ghost and The Treasure Map. It is the latter that was strongest.