Co-created by Tony Jordan who also co-created Life on Mars and Hustle. Jordan also wrote hundreds of episodes of EastEnders.
In fact if someone complained to the BBC that the dialogue in EastEnder's was unrealistic or the episode was so depressing and they should have proper working class people writing for the show, The BBC would respond that Jordan started out as a street market trader. Jordan would add though that his market stall was in Liverpool.
A kind of wit and originality missing in this campy pilot episode which is a rehash of Romancing of the Stone. Someone tell Tony Jordan that the writer of that hit movie purchased a Porsche from her windfall and subsequently died in a car accident.
Lady Alexandra (Ophelia Lovibond) works in the British Museum and ends up going to the Amazon to find the camp of a missing Victorian adventurer who was looking for the fabled city of Eldorado. When we next see her in the jungle you doubt if she ever attended Bear Gryll's very expensive survival courses.
Hooten (Michael Landes) is a rugged adventure with maybe a murky past. He does not like to talk much about himself but I guess he was created in a laboratory where someone spliced the genes of Micheal Douglas and Harrison Ford together missed out on the charisma.
Hooten and Lady team up to escape some natives in the jungle, find Fawcett's camp and then try to evade a dodgy Frenchman. It is a comedy drama that aims to be a guilty pleasure with cheesy dialogue that seems to be aimed at children's television standards.
The first episode was just too derivative and at times lacked excitement despite some good location shooting but also some dodgy green screen work.
Still looking at the trailer for episode 2, It looks like less Romancing the Stone and more The Da Vinci Code.