''Houdini'' is a two-part, four-hour

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

written by

Nicholas Meyer Nicholas Meyer (born December 24, 1945) is an American screenwriter, director and author known for his best-selling novel '' The Seven-Per-Cent Solution'', and for directing the films '' Time After Time'', two of the ''Star Trek'' feature films, ...

and directed by Uli Edel. It premiered on September 1, 2014. The series stars Adrien Brody as

Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

and features the life of the legendary illusionist and escape artist from poverty to worldwide fame.

Plot

The miniseries follows the man behind the magic as he finds fame, engages in espionage, battles spiritualists and encounters the greatest names of the era. The drama will chronicle the life of a man who can defy death through his stunts, his visions and his mastery of illusion.

Cast

* Adrien Brody as

, world-famous magician * Kristen Connolly as Bess Houdini, Harry's wife * Evan Jones as Jim Collins, Harry's assistant * Eszter Ónodi as Cecilia Weiss, Harry's mother * Tom Benedict Knight as Dash Houdini, Harry's younger brother * Louis Mertens as Erich Weiss (young Harry) * Tim Pigott-Smith as William Melville - Head of

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

* Shaun Williamson as Sidney Reilly, MI5 agent and Harry's handler * David Calder as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of ''

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

'' and believer in

spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

* Linda Marlowe as Lady Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle's

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to ...

wife

Production

Development

History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

first announced the development of a Houdini biopic miniseries with Adrien Brody attached to star on April 10, 2013. The series was officially green-lit on August 19, 2013, with Kristen Connolly announced as Brody's co-star and Uli Edel as director. The screenplay was to be penned by veteran author and filmmaker

, based on the 1976 book ''Houdini: A Mind in Chains: A Psychoanalytic Portrait'' by his father, Bernard C. Meyer. Patrizia von Brandenstein and Karl Walter Lindenlaub were also announced as production designer and cinematographer, respectively. On September 17, 2013, it was announced that actor Evan Jones had been added to the cast as Houdini's assistant Jim Collins.

Filming

Filming on the miniseries began on September 30, 2013. It was shot entirely in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

(coincidentally the real Harry Houdini's birthplace), which executive producer Gerald W. Abrams described as having "more turn-of-the-century architecture—that's the 19th century—than almost any city in Western culture." Brody, who had studied magic as a child, performed many of the show's stunts himself, including the suspended strait jacket escape and the famous Chinese Water Torture Cell.

Music

The score to ''Houdini'' was written by the veteran film composer John Debney. A lifelong fan of Harry Houdini, Debney joined the project at the behest of a producer with whom he had previously collaborated on the A&E miniseries '' Bonnie & Clyde''. Rather than compose a period score for the series, Debney instead elected to write an "electronic/contemporary" score, with "instruments from the period that would give you the flavor of the times and give you the feeling of who this guy was." A two volume soundtrack was released for digital download by Lakeshore Records on August 26, 2014 and later on CD September 23, 2014.

Promotion

A trailer for ''Houdini'' was released online in early August 2014.

Episodes

Reception

Ratings

Part 1 of the series was watched by 3.7 million viewers, averaging 1.2 million among adults 18–49 and 1.5 million in 25–54. Despite debuting much lower than

's previous series' '' Hatfields & McCoys'' and '' Bonnie & Clyde'', ''Houdini'' was nevertheless cable television's top miniseries debut of 2014 to date.

Critical response

''Houdini'' received a mixed response, with praise for the direction, sound design, and Brody's performance as a "comeback", although the script was criticized. The series currently holds a 44% "Rotten" rating on the review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, with a consensus "Houdini's cast is talented, but given the decades of fascination surrounding its subject, the show is oddly lacking in intrigue." Allison Keene of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised Brody's Houdini as possessing "infectious zest" and commented that "... the miniseries nails the most important thing: spectacle. Edel's refreshingly dynamic direction and Brody’s buoyant performance allow Houdini's tricks to retain their wonder, even for the jaded modern viewer. That's a magical feat indeed." Despite referring to some aspects of the series as "a bit heavy-handed," Mark Perigard of the ''

Boston Herald The ''Boston Herald'' is an American conservative daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarde ...

'' gave ''Houdini'' a positive "B" rating and opined, "You’ll almost believe in magic—the magic of a miniseries to capture the tics and tricks of a complicated, driven man." Neil Genzlinger of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' called Brody "a treat to watch," but criticized the screenplay and direction. He added, "A better version of this amazing life will surely be made in one genre or another, but this one's at least diverting." Brian Lowry of '' Variety'', however, spoke less favorably of the series, describing Brody's performance as being "ultimately overwhelmed" by Meyer's "misbegotten, heavy-handed, narrated-ad-nauseam script (...) and Uli Edel's equally obtrusive direction." Meyer addressed the voiceovers in a subsequent interview with StarTrek.com, stating "Well, they – you know, sort of re-cut the movie, and tore a lot of it out, and put in a lot of voiceovers and stuff that I just wasn't crazy about. And twasn't our intention. It hadn't been written."

Awards and nominations

International broadcast

''Houdini'' was first shown on Channel 4 in the UK in September 2014 and later released on Netflix UK on 7 March 2015. ''Houdini'' premiered on the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

on June 23, 2015. It is available on Shomi in Canada. In Brazil Houdini aired on January 5, 2016 as a four-part series on Globo channel. It is available on Sony Liv in India.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Houdini 2014 American television series debuts 2010s American drama television miniseries American biographical series Films about magic and magicians History (American TV channel) original programming Films about Grigori Rasputin Cultural depictions of Arthur Conan Doyle Cultural depictions of Harry Houdini MI5 in fiction Television series set in the 1890s Television series set in the 1900s Television series set in the 1910s Television series set in the 1920s Television shows filmed in Hungary Films with screenplays by Nicholas Meyer