Not Bond, But Not Bad - 007: Road To A Million, Reviewed

Honestly, the premise sounds pretty cringey: take 9 pairs of ordinary people, and put them in contrived but legitimately challenging situations, hunting for questions in a variety of exotic locales akin to a James Bond movie, all while an unseen antagonist leads them and taunts them by phone and taped messages from (presumably) some sort of lair, all in pursuit of one million pounds. There is very little reason for this to work, but for our money, it really did.

We are all home sick with dreadful colds this weekend, so last night the three of us powered through the last three episodes of 007: Road To a Million on Amazon Prime. I am not really a fan of reality TV, but I am a fan of the Bond films, and since this show was actually co-produced by EON Productions, I hoped it would be a worthwhile view.

Smartly, they removed the competitive aspect right away, and none of the nine teams ever meet (although I might have liked to see them comparing notes once all was said and done). And all nine pairs of Brits seemed like decent and likable folks - no strong overbearing personalities, no manufactured drama, no smack talk. 

No doubt there will be folks who find the tremendous support and encouragement offered by these teams to be dull or saccharine. But one of the best moments for me was when one pair finds out they have to traverse between a group of restrained but ferocious-sounding dogs in a darkened warehouse to reach their objective, and you discover one of them is dog-phobic. The matter-of-fact way the other tells his best friend, "Right, hand on my shoulder, you follow me, yeah? If I turn and run, you follow," and they carry-on was a stand-out moment for me.

The general knowledge-type questions they have to answer (in a high-tech briefcase with a video-display and labeled smoke grenades to reveal the correct answer) are not the most challenging, because the challenge is often in finding the case to begin with. In the first episode, it involves marching for hours across the Scottish highlands before entering waist-deep water to retrieve it. In almost every case, the contestants talk about the role fatigue plays in their deduction, half the suspense comes from watching people talk themselves out of what may well be the correct answer.

So yes, the challenge is there, but what makes it Bond?  Three things, in my estimation:

THE LOCALES - From the Scottish Highlands to Chile's Atacama Desert to St. Mark's Square in Venice, the settings are always amazing. There are no car chases and few explosions but the backdrops (like an enormous solar farm, a Formula 1 raceway and a pass through the Swiss Alps) look like they would be right at home for Bond set-piece. Much of the filming of the contestants is hand-held of course, but the amazing aerial shots and panoramic views mark this every bit an EON Production.

THE MUSIC - The showrunners make full use of the Bond soundtracks here, from the remixed 007 theme in the titles to Hans Zimmer's "Square Escape" that closes out each episode. Every new locale is treated to an appropriate bit of score and they make great use of some familiar Bond songs too, playing "We Have All The Time In The World" to console one couple who failed to complete a challenge in time.

THE VOICE - Brian Cox as the mysterious "Controller" is really in his element here, doling out clues, clucking his tongue as he strikes a line through a team's name, and welcoming the players over a hidden P.A. system in later episodes. Apparently, he thought he was signing on for an actual Bond film, but he is either having the time of his life playing a villain to the hilt ("That's a lot of money...are you sure that's the right answer?") or treating this as his audition for the real thing. Either way, we viewers are the winners.

Best of all, the Bond references are by and large subtle ones - no garish voice-over or subtitles telling you which move was shot where, just an appearance of a classic setting or the occasional classic vehicle. The whole presentation is much more about the style than direct callbacks.

And my compliments to the casters; I would have liked to see any of these teams go the distance, but some flame out tragically early while others go quite a bit further on. Watching them overcome their challenges is a real treat, and a welcome bit of positivity for a TV genre that doesn't seem to appreciate that a lot.

I won't say it scratches the Bond itch per se, but with a new movie still years away, it salves it a bit, and has a few genuine surprises along the way.

Official Trailer