This show, which is still going on, follows the lives of several individuals that were affected directly/indirectly by the construction of the Titanic. Mark Muir (played by Kevin Zegers) leads the story as a metal scientist trying to make sure that Harland and Wolff shipyard is doing their best to prepare the gigantic ship for her first voyage. Muir tests the steel that the ship is constructed with to make sure there aren’t any imperfections (there are, of course). At the same time, he is up against the wall with White Star Line (the customer) and their push to make sure that Titanic is ready go on time. White Star is forcing the higher-ups at Harland and Wolff, led by Lord Pirrie (played by Derek Jacobi) to stay the course and produce their ship.
In between this main storyline, there are a boatload (no pun intended) of folks that help put together the ship and have their lives affected by it.
This is a lot of drama in one television show.
What’s great about Titanic: Blood & Steel is how genuine the production feels. Donnelly clearly wants to put every detail into this, as it’s just not as simple as saying ‘The ship was built and then it sank’. Donnelly includes the hazards of the shipyard, the impending unionization of the workers (and what stress that put on management — and the Titanic construction), class wars where Muir is stuck in the middle, and a few love stories to boot. The strong point to Donnelly’s production is when the focus of the story is on White Star Line, the internal workings of Harland and Wolff, the workers and Muir’s cautious attitude towards the giant ships construction. Since we already know what is going to happen with the giant ship, seeing all the warning signs, such as another Harland and Wolff ship called the Olympic getting heavily damaged in a storm, just provides more tension to what was ultimately deemed as one of the worst disasters on the sea. The politics particularly were interesting in terms of the story, as we get to see the red tape that was side-stepped just to make sure the shipyard and White Star Line completed their manmade marvel. The show really shines when it sticks to this part of the story.
Now, the show starts straying a bit when we get too involved in minor characters’ lives. For example, when Muir and and Sofia Silvestri (played by Alessandra Mastronardi), a copier for Harland and Wolff, begin to fall in love — things get a bit boring. Does it fill up time in the story? Yep. Does it really matter to the overall story? Nope. And we get more of those types of side stories that really feel like filler than pivotal parts of the whole story. You could certainly do without the love stories (I mean, you can completely nix them) and fill the gaps with more of the politics behind the ship’s creation, but this show never does that. It meanders its way through the love stories and then excites again when we return to the ship. Please don’t get me wrong, I love ‘love stories’. I just don’t think these fit in this type of show. There could have been more business and far less pleasure. Donnelly might have been trying to shape the characters in the story a bit more, giving them a little bit more depth with their personal lives. Ultimately, too much depth creates too big of a hole to climb out of and what you get is a lot of boring unnecessary moments.
Give me more of the ship and leave it at that!
Anyway, the show itself is done really well overall. This isn’t just a small-time production, as you get great characters in this confined, stressful world they work in. There’s a lot to love about Titanic: Blood & Steel, as it’s absolutely fascinating seeing what went into the creation of the Titanic. Just don’t mind the love stories.
One of the nicest parts of this release is how gorgeous the Blu-ray looks. This HD is probably one of the nicest I’ve seen from Lionsgate. You could probably give credit to the color tone of the film, which switches from a tint of blue to yellow. The blue really brings out the details of the environments, the clothes and the features of the actors, as does the yellow tint. There isn’t any graininess to this show, no artifacts and no color banding; it’s simply gorgeous. Even the special effects look damn good in this show. It’s probably the closest you can get to perfection when it comes to an HD transfer, as it’s certainly ‘the’ most gorgeous show I’ve seen on Blu-ray to date. If you know of this show, or want to check it out, then I highly recommend doing so on this format. You won’t regret it.
As for the audio, you get that coming to you in Dolby Digital 5.1. You’ll enjoy that, especially when Titanic launches. Lots of fun noises coming through your speaker setup.
Finally, as for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
– The Visual Effects of Titanic: Blood & Steel
– Making of Titanic: Blood & Steel
While I commend them for the visual effects feature, it can’t outshine the ‘making of’ featurette. It’s always nice to hear a bit more detail on what the cast/crew was shooting for when they were putting the show together. Maybe they accomplished it, maybe they didn’t, but it’s nice to know how the idea bloomed. I wish there was commentary, though. That would have made this show even more fascinating.