IN REVIEW: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS EPISODES THREE & FOUR

Synopsis: Having traveled through France and Italy in last week’s leg of his world adventure. Fogg finds himself Stuck on Yemen’s west coast, and foolishly decides on a dangerous desert crossing, leaving Abigail Fix in a place where even a fellow Englishwoman proves hostile.

The Story

Frustrated by a number of setbacks. Including the fact that the train will not arrive fast enough. Fogg decides to take a treacherous hike through the desert with Passepartout and leaves Abigail behind to learn a few things about her father from a fellow Englishwoman who rejected his advances but has made a life for herself in Yemen. Passepartout meets the man that Nyle Bellamy has hired to stop Fogg from succeeding and is given some poison to use on him in order to slow him down. 

As they arrive in the wilds of India Fogg finds himself coming to the defense of an Indian Soldier who is facing trial for deserting the British Army, but things take a turn for the worse when Fogg takes ill. Thankfully help is at hand and he is able to represent the soldier in the trial. Meanwhile, a message is sent back to Bellemy in England to say that Fogg has left India, but he will not get out of China.

The Acting

Once again the acting was really strong from the main cast. We get some nice character development for Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma) and Leonie Benesch also gets some great moments as Abigail, who finds out that her father Bernard Fortescue (Jason Watkins) may not be the moral authority she believes him to be. 

However, this pairing of episodes belongs to David Tennant who seems to have found his comfort zone while walking in the shows of Phileas Fogg. Episode Four in which he comes to the aid of a deserter is particularly good as we see Fogg argue on the Soldiers behalf for leniency from his commanding officer who is set on throwing the book at him.

Overall

Although we get a little action and some solid dramatic moments in these two episodes. They are not quite as compelling or strong as last week’s opening two episodes. Hopefully, things will pick up a bit next week when Fogg pays a visit to China.