BWW Recap: THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER Series Premiere Brings Blood and Faith to FX

I think it was Thomas Edison who said that series premieres are 99% anticipation and 1% reservation. Or he would have had he lived to see the dawn of television. There's some truth to that; however, as I found myself counting down the days to the airing of Kurt Sutter's latest FX pilot, I felt like I needed to amend that statement to reflect a more equal distribution of expectation. As a massive SONS OF ANARCHY fan, I was obviously excited to learn that cable TV's favorite bad boy would be hitting our screens again. At the same time, as a massive SONS OF ANARCHY fan, I wondered if THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER could possibly match up to one of the greatest dramas in recent television history (is that too strong? Maybe. But I'm sticking with it.) Did tonight's series premiere provide the answer?

The pilot opens, admittedly, rather unextraordinarily, providing historical context with brief factoids stamped onto our TV screens. It's a little dry, maybe, but entirely necessary. The information is vital to our understanding of the story-the dominance of Roman Catholicism, the tension between the Welsh and the English, the struggle of the peasants against royal brutality, etc. The episode opens in earnest in true Sutter-style, which is to say very violently. It's telling to note that we hear the clashing of swords well before we hear any actual dialogue. This is a dangerous world, a bloody one, one where even a young wife and her unborn child won't be spared from slaughter.

We meet Wilkin Brattle, played by Australian newbie Lee Jones, former knight turned farmer, who seems to live a simple idyllic life--albeit, still tortured by dreams of the ravages of war--with his pretty wife Petra. The couple is immediately likeable, clearly smitten with each other and eager to welcome the baby in Petra's very swollen belly into the world. As they frolic happily about the homestead, you can't help but smile--but then you remember that this is a Kurt Sutter drama, and if these two look happy now, it only means something absolutely terrible is waiting for them just around the corner.

We're eventually introduced to a whopping cast of characters, including real life couple Katey Sagal and Kurt Sutter himsef as Annora of the Alders and the Dark Mute, respectively. We also meet Wilk's little band of merry men, farmers by day, vigilantes by night--a brotherhood not unlike SAMCRO, a comparison that is only too easy to make as the guys grab hoods instead of helmets and mount horses instead of motorcycles to go serve some justice against unfair taxation. The head oppressor, Baron Erik Ventris, is a bad guy. Very bad. He retaliates against Wilk and his friends by leading a shockingly brutal massacre at the shire, destroying the village and slaughtering all of its occupants--mothers, wives, children. Petra manages to escape, and is even shown mercy by one of Ventris' men, until a mysterious figure catches up to her and stabs her in the stomach. To say the death is startling is a gross understatement, but what else can you say? I actually caught myself smacking my head, because I knew something bad would happen to her eventually, but really, the first episode?! The blow is a big one to Wilk and his friends, and to us, who in such a brief time have already come to like really like these guys. We've seen them as family men, brave and loyal, so when hour two opens with a pile of smoking corpses, we really feel for them, especially Wilk as he sobs on top of his wife and child's mutilated bodies.

So yes, we're sad for Wilk, but maybe even more than that, we really hate Ventris. When he picks up journeyman executioner, Gawain Maddox, another bad guy, it just seems like way too much bad concentrated in one place. Maddox, a man with a penchant for domestic abuse and self-mutilation, is a disturbing character, different from Ventris, but just as detestable. However, unlike Ventris there was something interesting about Maddox, which isn't to say Ventris was boring (oops, I switched to past tense--spoiler?), but there was something deeper to him--the seething anger, the scars on his chest--it all made you very curious about him. So when he's killed in the midst of Wilk and the rebels' attack, it's almost disappointing...even though literally the entire plot of the series revolves around Maddox's death. Oh well. Ventris' death, on the other hand, is incredibly satisfying for two reasons, partly because he was such a despicable character, but also because it paves the way for his right-hand man, Milus Corbett, played by TRUE BLOOD's Stephen Moyer. He's slimy, he's conniving, he's ruthless, and has all the makings for one heck of a Big Bad.

The action shifts to Ventris Castle, as Wilk assumes the identity of the Gawain Maddox, under the advisement of the mysterious Annora. He and pal Toran arrive with the baron's dead body, which is met with only a bit more than a shrug by Ventris' wife Baroness Lady Love. There's a very tense moment when Milus' brother nearly exposes Wilk, but the outburst turns against him when Wilk reveals how he deserted his commander in battle, an offense punishable by death. Milus, naturally, sides with "Maddox" and is all too quick to throw his brother under the bus. How convenient that a new executioner stumbled onto our doorstep--apparently we need one! The way Milus turns on his own blood so easily sums up his character in a way that I'm sure will only become more relevant as the season progresses. His relationship with Wilk is one that I'm especially excited about, particularly after the brief scene in the chapel where he puts his hand on the dragon scar on Wilk's chest. I immediately crept a bit further to the edge of my seat, because he so knows.

When the two hours finally came to a close, I found myself wishing I could click "next episode," because this show already feels lived in, like one I should be able to binge, but of course it's only just beginning. I see heaps of potential, instantly wondering how these characters will grow and develop over time. That's probably Sutter's biggest strength, his command of character, of finding likeability in the unlikeliest of places--formerly in the gun-running biker, in the homicidal matriarch, in the troubled necrophiliac, etc. But it would be too easy for me to sit here every Tuesday making comparisons to SONS OF ANARCHY, so now that I've done it once, I won't again. I will resist the urge. Because if tonight's series premiere of THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER proved anything, it's that this is not "Hamlet on Harleys." This isn't even Hamlet of horseback. This is something new entirely.

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What did you think of tonight's series premiere? Will you be turning into THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER next week? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or tweet me @i_got_the_tweet!

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