Rebus - Set 1 (2006)

This is not the right Rebus

This is a jolly Rebus without the heft of soul or grittiness needed for true Rebusness. Stott, though he might look the part, is too full of himself, he sports a self-satisfied air that is almost anti-Rebus. The Hannah Rebus is far closer to the real thing plus it has Cafferty. Hannah is perhaps not ideal but he is a good enough actor to pull it off. Skip the Stott and go for the Hannah Rebus. That's my advice. September 20, 2008

It's A Keeper

"Rebus," is another superb British crime drama/police procedural television series, based on the work of best selling Scottish author Ian Rankin. We've been seeing this series on BBC America, though it is not a British Broadcasting Corporation production; rather one by Independent Television (ITV). The series is set in the beautiful tourist city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, as are the author's works; however, in this production, as in the books on which it's based, we see the beautiful tourist city only in passing, on our way to such menacing high-rise subsidized housing, council housing as the British call it, as "Knoxland,"where the action takes place.

Rankin's first Rebus novel, "Knots & Crosses," was published in 1987, to great critical acclaim. He was accredited with helping to create "tartan noir,"a Scottish take on the usual mystery; tougher, bloodier, more nasty-minded, and delivered with that sardonic Scots humor. Since then, he's won the prestigious "Edgar," and become the United Kingdom's best selling mystery author; his works have been translated into 22 languages. Luckily for us all, he's published quite a bit, so that the TV series has his actual works on which to be based.

The novels used for Set 1 have been adapted for TV by Daniel Boyle (AKA Danny Boyle), greatly talented Celtic writer/director, who's written such series as "Hamish Macbeth," "Inspector Morse," and "Taggart," and has given us such movies as "Trainspotting," and "Twenty-Eight Days Later." He conveys the tension and atmosphere of the originals admirably; gives us many plot twists and turns, and the ironic local wit. Location photography in the city of Edinburgh is excellent, giving us its damp, cold, foggy ambiance. Disk 1, "The Falls," concerns a really unhappy high profile family. It gives us the Glasgow-born Sharon Small, who plays Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers, loyal sidekick in the "Inspector Lynley" mystery series, as Miranda Masterson, Rebus's current love interest. Disk 2, "Fleshmarket Close,"concerns recent immigrants to the U.K., and native-born racist bias against them.

This production has been happily recast from the previous series that starred Scottish actor John Hannah. In his place, we have Ken Stott, a much-admired TV actor, as Detective Inspector Rebus. And let me be the first to say that, pleasant as I find it to look at Hannah, he may have been too slightly-built to play a police officer, and too pretty to play a hard-bitten, hard-drinking eccentric man. Stott is a revelation, bringing great gravitas to the brooding cop. Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke has also been recast, with Claire Price; so has Detective Chief Superintendent Gill Templer, a former lover of Rebus's, with Jennifer Black. And there's a further very welcome development indeed: the addition of subtitles. If you love British mysteries, and aren't familiar with this series, it's time to get acquainted with it. And I think you'll find it's a keeper.


May 18, 2008

Casting is spot on, but...

Ken Stott looks the part of Rebus more than John Hannah, and Claire Price DEFINITELY looks the part of Siobhan more than Gayanne Potter. The supporting cast is equally effective, and the stories (Ian Rankin's The Falls and Fleshmarket Close) are translated to the screen reasonably well.

Still, things are definitely lacking here. Gone was every ounce of Rebus' ongoing personal narrative, and the stories are much weaker for it. Gone also was that sense of self-destructiveness that is so very Rebus. These two stories have been reduced to simply average British mysteries. Not bad by any means, but no where near as gripping as Hannah's Rebus. If you're looking for Ian Rankin's stories to come alive on the screen, pick up John Hannah's Rebus. August 20, 2006

This is not John Hannah's Rebus. It's better.

Hannah is a likable appealing actor, and his performances as Rebus were fine, but I never felt he truly inhabited the part. Ken Stott, on the other hand, is a much more versatile actor and is simply better suited to bring Rankin's sleuth to life. He gives these films a center of gravity that Hannah just didn't.

On some level, I suppose this is a matter of personal preference, in the same way that people insist that David Suchet is the definitive Poirot (which he arguably is) or that no one but Sean Connery was truly a good James Bond. Those actors were many viewer's introductions to these character, just as Hannah was for Rebus. At the end of the day, I'm happy that Stott has assumed this mantle, and I'm happy to say I've heard that he'll be reprising the role next year. June 29, 2006

This is not John Hannah's Rebus

The gentle man on the cover is not John Hannah of The Mummy Fame there is another Rebus which includes author Ian Rankin's Scottish Detective Rebus Hide and Seek, Knots and Crosses and Tooth and Nail are the 2nd, 1st and 3rd books which introduce Rebus. The 1st 3 Scottish TV series were named the same. I first saw them while living in Dundee I'm not sure if this was the first attempt at portraying Rebus but this is not the succesful Scottish TV series like Taggart May 31, 2006

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