I was a big fan of HBO’s Rome so the fact that James Purefoy was starring in his own show I had to give it a shot. I thought he was pretty incredible as Mark Antony. So the premise of The Philanthropist isn’t ground ground breaking. Rich dude has an apiphany then decides to become Dudley Do-right. The plot line was pretty much by the numbers, but you know what? I still super dug it.
It was totally carried by Purefoy’s charm and some really nice looking shots. I will tip my hat to NBC for getting creative with the product placement of Bing.com making it part of the show. Basically they would cut to commercial, mention that the show was brought to you in part by Bing, then it would immediately cut to a scene where the characters utilized the new Microsoft search engine.
I won’t lie, I liked the concept of the show more than the actual show. So much negative crap going on in the world that if one has to turn to the idiot box for some escapism, why not make it totally feel goody?
Filed under: tv
