Customer Reviews

The Philanthropist: The Complete Series

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Philanthropist (2009), with its central theme of trying to affect change for the better, is a welcome alternative to the sea of forensic procedural dramas, and other crime and action based programming that have predominated for the last few years. The series had a limited run on NBC during the summer of 2009, and the eight episodes in this set are all that were produced. This is unfortunate, as with all the negative things happening in the world, a little good news and optimism, however slight, is not a bad thing.

The Philanthropist stars James Purefoy as billionaire Teddy Rist, co-CEO of Maidstone-Rist, a conglomerate involved in natural resource ventures worldwide. Rist's marriage breaks up after the death of his young son. Previously something of a playboy, this loss changes his outlook on life, and he now looks to use his influence and power, to improve the lives of others. The business is headquartered in New York City, but Rist is often overseas, working on some deal. Teddy's partner and best friend is Philip Maidstone (Jesse L. Martin), his wife Olivia (Neve Campbell), heads the company's non-profit foundation. Also helping Teddy get things done, are AJ Butterfield (Lindy Booth), and his bodyguard Dax (Michael K. Williams).

The adventures take place in various places, delivering a positive message of hope. A wrong is revealed, a crisis arises, or someone with a need is discovered, and the story becomes about finding a solution, no matter how difficult this may appear. Wherever he may be, Rist uses his personality, smarts, charm, and money, to get things done. There are some light moments, but for the most part, the focus is on what Teddy or the team, must do to avoid a crisis. Rist prefers to negotiate, maneuver, or buy, his way out of trouble, rarely resorting to violence. He quickly learns, that in order to accomplish tasks, he must often do them himself, usually at great personal risk. Following his conscience, Teddy is up for almost anything, rarely ever backing down.

The series makes the point that one person caring, can make a difference, that people do matter, and that making money is not the most important thing, if people are hurt in the process. This kind of idealism may not be particularly realistic, in a world concerned mostly about the bottom line. In the real life, someone would probably shoot Teddy Rist for his cash, watch, or car, and that would be the end of it. That kind of violent realism, we already have in abundance. What The Philanthropist offers, is a little refuge from that, and some small hope for a better world, in a package that features adventure and excitement, exotic locations, and a taste of other cultures. These are journeys well worth taking, that make you think, and may have you shedding a tear or two.

The stories are very well written, with attention paid to detail. Production values are high, with great editing and cinematography. Set in various places across the globe, the episodes are titled after the location featured in the story, and are usually told using flashbacks, with Teddy narrating.

Things begin in 'Nigeria (Part 1)', with the loss of his son still a fresh memory, Teddy saves the life of a young Nigerian boy during a flood. He returns, keeping a promise to deliver a much needed vaccine, to a beautiful doctor working in a remote area.

Teddy is shocked, when he learns that his company is affiliated with a company in 'Myanmar' (Burma), that is engaged in questionable human rights practices. The country is under the rule of a military junta, but Teddy arrives and boldly meets with a political leader living in exile. Meanwhile back home, one of the stockholders is making a move to kick Teddy out of the company.

Teddy encounters the latest in 'customer service' in 'Paris', as women are being trapped into prostitution, to serve the clientele of a high class hotel. When a friend of Olivia is killed, Teddy is determined to break up the ring, and bring the killer to justice.

In 'Nigeria (Part II)', when his doctor friend is taken as a hostage, Teddy tries to effect her release, with a bold gamble that involves pressuring the government. Back home, Philip is dealing with his own episode of philanthropy. Both men learn that helping is not always a simple matter, as some will take advantage of the situation.

Distrust between people, threatens to halt Maidstone-Rist's plans to build a factory in 'Kosovo'. Philip is injured in an act of deadly terrorism. Krista Allen makes an extended appearance as Teddy's ex-wife Julia, as the couple make some progress in dealing with the death of their son.

Teddy is on the trail of a mysterious impersonator, who is doing good deeds using his credit card in 'San Diego'. Rist could easily cancel the card, but his curiosity gets the better of him, and he almost takes a beating, going to bat for a stranger.

'Kashmir', features Teddy recounting his adventures there, while a guest on a talk radio program. A college friend of Teddy's and Phillip, has a plan to help provide water to an area of India suffering from drought. But there are those who prefer the status quo remain, and will kill to maintain it. With India and Pakistan threatening war, Teddy works to forge a peace along the border.

Teddy, Philip, and Olivia, are in Haiti to try and provide relief during a food shortage. Philip's brother is a Senator there, but he is resistant to accepting outside aid. Teddy comes face to face with slavery, encountering a woman who's son has been sold by his father to pay off debts, and young girl who is a 'restavec', living as a servant slave, raised experiencing abuse. The series closes, asking for ideas how people can help.

Teddy Rist isn't perfect. He has a stubborn streak, a weakness for beautiful women, and drinks a bit, but for the most part, he is a guy with a good heart, who puts his life on the line for his beliefs. Handsome and classy, James Purefoy brings a sincerity and caring to the role of Rist, that makes him believable as a charismatic, wheeler-dealer type, who is refocusing his skills in a new direction. Teddy's dedication and tenacity, provides the impetus for this thoughtful series. The rest of the cast receive limited screen time, but Jesse L. Martin and Neve Campbell, shine when given the opportunity. Unfortunately Lindy Booth, isn't given more screentime.

Few of us can make a difference the way Teddy Rist can, and there are seldom easy answers to complex problems, but there are things that each of us can do, to make a better world, if we just give it a little thought, and make an effort.

Tom Fontana was 1/2 of the Team Behind the TV Masterpiece known as Homicide: Life on the Streets

Tom Fontana was also one of the People behind Creating this Show.
So you'll get the Feeling that The Philanthropist was something very Special

The Show itself was amazing (But, it was put on during the summer?!?!?!)
Which is a Bit Strange
The Show wasn't given a Chance to breathe and gain a fan base (Because of the time Frame) Plus The Fall Line up would be A Huge disaster for the NBC Network and would Drastically Change NBC Universal Forever


I Highly Recommend this Show
Everything about it was Very Good It was Shot more Like A Major Motion Picture Some of the Locations Alone were very Unique and add alot to the Story
The Writing was very "Real" and Believable......
I Guess you could say it opens your eyes to all the bad things going on through-out the world
It will bring tears to your eyes But, also give you Hope!
The Cast was Perfect

To Bad TNT or USA didn't pick up the Show
It had major potential of growing and getting better with time but, in this day and age seems like nothing new is Given a Fair Chance to find any audience it has to have Huge Rating by the second Episode
This show is major prof why All the Good TV is on Cable (FX, USA, Sci-Fi, TNT, AMC, BBC-America)
Network TV has Lost it's Originality and Edge
A real Shame it wasn't picked up!
Check it out 9.5/10

One of the greatest strengths of the short-lived "The Philanthropist" is the ability of the writers to recognize the potential for the lead character to become a superficial, cloying caricature and to skillfully guide the writing away from the caricature and towards the Character - with a capital C. Teddy Rist is played by James Purefoy, and he is introduced as a billionaire casanova who is prompted by a life-changing event to turn into a crusader for good. Without much modification he could easily be Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark, but we're reminded several times that he's no super-hero, and in hand to hand combat Teddy is the one who winds up beaten, tied up and with a gun pointed at him.

Teddy and his best friend Phillip (played by Michael Kenneth Williams) have established Maidstone-Rist, an international conglomerate specializing in trade and utilization of natural commodities. Teddy's job gives him opportunities to fly to places like Paris, but the series makes a realistic attempt to give Maidstone-Rist a reason to also go to world geo-political hot spots. Neve Campbell plays Olivia Maidstone, Phillips wife and the head of the company's charitable arm. Michael Kenneth Williams has the largest supporting role as Dax, a Marine veteran now working as Teddy's bodyguard.

Why is the show good? Why does it work? I grew up watching television shows like "Little House on the Prairie" and "Perry Mason" that always - and I mean always - ended "Happily ever after", and the happy endings were not always honestly earned. A contrived ending would miraculous change the hearts or misfortunes in the final five minutes of "Little House" and at the end of "Perry Mason" the "real bad guy" would break down at the end and blabber "you're RIGHT! I DID IT!" in the same way that every episode of "Scooby-Doo" ended with the villain confessing, then complaining "and I would have gotten away for it too, if it weren't for you darn kids!"

But "The Philanthropist" exists in a relatively "real" world - it is definitely a post 9/11 world. It is a world where age-old enemies can't be reconciled with a smile, or a bribe. Teddy and his company run into drug dealers, human traffickers, corrupt government and military officials, and they don't always "win".

Teddy lost his son to tragedy while off on some jet-setting mission, and as the show opens we see the events that led him to stop looking for ways to exploit the world financially and instead to look for ways to help his fellow man - while still making a buck. (In one episode it is clear that the Board of Maidstone-Rist wouldn't hesitate to sack Teddy if he weren't also turning a profit.) So while MR is looking into natural resources scattered around the globe Teddy is also looking into easing tensions on the border of India and Pakistan and bringing cholera vaccine into Nigerian villages.

Roger Ebert has written that what a movie is about isn't as important as how the movie is about that thing. If "The Philanthropist" was about a Billionaire Playboy flying into Nigeria and heroically delivering vaccine without getting his hands dirty it would be as shallow as a desert brook. But because these characters run into realistic obstacles, and often don't get their way, it becomes something deeper. It's about trying to do good under difficult circumstances, not because it increases your own importance to try, but because it's worth trying.

Four stars for good intentions and great locations/photography.

How can a show based on pointing out the incredible greed and rapacity of the corporate world survive on a commercial network owned by, and making money from, massive corporations? It will never happen, especially these days. And when there are as many missteps as here, doubly so.

For instance, Maidstone-Rist is a huge investment firm that plows billions into developing nations, and that is almost never done without paying off corrupt regimes. This is somewhat pointed out in the Nigeria episodes...but Teddy also says, "This MR oil refinery will bring fifty million dollars to struggling Nigeria, AND give Americans cheaper gas!" The reporters smile knowingly, in one of the faker scenes among a brief summer season replacement show rife with ironic fakeness, however well-intentioned. The oil industry's malfeasance in the Nigeria delta dwarfs even our own recent Gulf oil spill (look it up), and no way does any firm get in there without massive bribes. If this is the kind of kowtowing they had to do to the networks' corporate masters, after a while it just becomes totally at odds with the philanthropy that Teddy delivers (with much action and intrigue!). And no large refinery in the third world is built there without what is essentially slave labor, huge environmental messes, and also a lot more than 50 mil going into dictators' offshore accounts.

This kind of knowledge is boldly flirted with here, but that final step is still avoided. No wonder NBC dumped this into the summer hole. No one really wanted it to succeed except its producers, probably...these big biz truths are ugly and call our entire self-centered way of life into question. And that just doesn't sell.

I don't watch much tv (except on dvd), and only heard of this after enjoying Purefoy in Rome and then watching him in other (mostly BBC) shows and movies. One thing I'd say about JP is that if his character has no nastiness in him, James comes off rather weakly. His breezy smile becomes rather cheesy after a while, and one longs for the edge of Mark Antony to leaven the loaf. Even more so here, as this all feels phony after a while. The billionaire waltzes into some impoverished nation in his five grand suit (and new shades every five minutes), but never gets mugged? Strike one.

He has to deliver vaccines himself through the jungle instead of paying for a new batch to be choppered in in half the time (and other such illogical plot drivers)? Strike two.

He's usually Bonding it up with some new babe while bonding with yet another wonderful local do-gooder who never just says, "Cut us a check for ten million if you really care, instead of running around like a billionaire headless chicken with his head cut off but genitalia quite intact." Strike three. Teddy, you're out.

Which is a shame, as the idea is of course highly laudable, if laughably unfulfilled and inane. There's a fine cast, especially the woefully underused M.K. Williams, who was so fine in The Wire but barely utters a word here. This series was way too much about Teddy/Purefoy, and missed so many good chances to get the excellent cast more involved as characters rather than foils.

And as much as JP is mighty charming, he's also mighty unbelievable in this role. The fauxlanthropy is so scatter-shot and inefficient that I just couldn't buy it after a few episodes, and some of the scripts are really hammy and heavy-handed in their social consciousness minus common sense. Some of the banter is very poor to boot. Still, there are some touching moments, and some humor that's rather more intelligent than the usual network fare, and the show certainly had its heart in the right place. But the creators of The Philanthropist couldn't avoid the preachiness this concept is heir to, admittedly a tough task, yet one that had to be fulfilled if this was to have any hope in our tv world, a phony little universe that exists only to further the brainwashed consumerism and selfishness that numbs us all daily, mainly to the realities of what our me-first lifestyles mean to the rest of the world. The ironies pile up mountainously.

Maybe if Levinson/Fontana had spent more time ironing out the many inconsistencies of this concept and making Teddy a lot more edgy and two-sided, and less time making him look ever cool and all too Nice Guy Lite, The Philanthropist might have lasted more than 8 shows.

When you're biting the network/corporate hand that feeds you, best really go all out instead of halfway home. This show belonged on HBO, with all sorts of real world Machiavellianism thrown in, not on a major network owned by the biggest military profiteering corporation in the world.

Nice concept on paper, but one can't help but wonder if this show was built to fail, because there are so many obvious chinks in its gossamer armor. I'd love to see more tv shows about people trying to make a difference, but when you're going up against yet another season full of cop and hospital shows (fear sells!), you'd best deliver a near-flawless product that forces people to sit up and take notice.

However, it was nice to see such fine cinematography of all those scenic locales around the globe, instead of the usual backlots. Still...next time, give the "hero" some jeans and a t-shirt to wander the third world in. What kind of knob shows up in the streets of Nigeria to help the starving locals while wearing Armani?

Only a fauxlanthropist who flew in straight from Hollywood.

PS This is based on real-life philanthropist Bobby Sager, who has a wife and kids who live with him as he travels around the world. No guns and babes and Hollywood playboy tripe...so why did the producers here have to tart that up so much? Is a nice, normal guy doing abnormally kind things so hard to sell? I think this show would have done better in every way had it stayed truer to the reality of Sager's wiser way.

Initially, we did not know what to expect. But once my husband and I began watching this series, we could not stop until we reached the end. It was really good. I wish that there was more.

James Purefoy is really good acting as Teddy Rist, a wallstreet tycoon. He has tragedy in life which causes him to personally stumble into the world of philanthropy. His adventures take you on a thrill ride that you just can not get enough of.

A must see!

When "The Philanthropist" debuted as a limited summer series on NBC, commercials for it seemed to paint the show as a frolicking pseudo-adventure similar to "Chuck" with an equally giddy male lead. I almost didn't watch it (even though I like "Chuck").

But I'm glad I did. This was the finest hour on television I've seen in years, a perfect blend of acting, character-driven drama rich with emotion and film-quality location photography. Tom Fontana ("Homicide: Life on the Street") did a great job with this series.

When have you ever heard writing this rich in a TV drama, coming from a sorrow-ridden lead character's voice, over an tragic scene he's witnessing and struggling to thwart: "As I've travelled the world, I've seen my share of horrific sites. I'm always stunned, not so much by the horror itself, but by the fact that one human being is doing something unspeakably horrible to another. A woman is dead, other women are being raped emotionally, physically. ... How can any real man not feel violated by that?"

In another episode, the lead character enters a Chinese gem mine where woman and children are forced to work under harsh conditions. He has used his influence and money to secure escape for one person. As they depart, he tries to help an old woman hit with the butt of a gun, but soldiers prevent him. As he slowly walks out of the mine, the sad eyes of those forced to work meet his. With a broken voice, he softly uttered, "I'm sorry", over and over as he passed each captive as he leaves.

This show was a kick in the emotional gut that forced you to think about your place in the world, and whether you're caring enough about others living in it.

Do yourself a favor and watch it. Then marvel at how this gem ever found its way onto television and quickly departed with virtually no one watching it.

After watching these episodes on the internet, I decided to purchase the complete series. I enjoyed this series very much and it was sad that it was not going to be renewed. I have no problems in ordering from Amazon.com and it is hassele free and the delivery time of my items always are on time. Thank you

This show was truly incredible! Never heard of it until amazon, now I can re-watch it again and again. The story lines are very interesting as well as touching and inspirational. I only wish it was more than 8 episodes, this is the kind of show we need on the air instead of all the pointless reality which is still entertaining but has no substance what so ever.

Everyone should watch this show at least once!

I would love to review it, I wish I could review it; but it is not available in the UK , in region 2 . Why not? I am sure there is a market for it. There is a market for it. I want it. Why must polatics get in the way selling copies in Europe and the UK? What has happened to Globalisation, that we should be denied like this? I believe America is having a similar hard time getting Solomon Kane. What appaling deprivation of the best Fantasy film since Lord of the Rings. I do hope something can be resolved soon.

Buy it right now! With such a low price for such a terrific series presented in quality video, you can't go wrong.
I am just now into Episode 2, and Teddy Rist (the lead character, played convincingly by the English actor James Purefoy, aka Mark Anthony in the HBO series, Rome) is... just ... well, thankfully, there are some people like him in real life.
I had missed this show completely in 2009 and when Amazon advertised the whole series at such a great discount and I read the description, had to buy it immediately and am so glad I did. There are some great, detailed reviews in this thread here, so I will just focus on the reality behind the fiction.
The show is based on the hands-on philanthropy of Bobby Sager, check him out here [...]
....Consulting Producer

Excerpt from the website:

NBC's The Philanthropist is inspired by the true life of entrepreneur-turned-full-time philanthropist Bobby Sager.

Few people cut a more colorful, dynamic swath of impact across the globe than entrepreneur-turned-full-time philanthropist Bobby Sager.

In the words of Sting, Bobby's frequent travel mate since they met in a Brazilian bar years back, Bobby is "a big brash guy from Boston... an old Nepal hand, flamboyant eccentric, inexhaustible world traveler, and practical philanthropist."

It is a description well earned. A tough-minded businessman who made a fortune by following his passion, Sager has spent the last decade of his life traveling around the globe giving away his money and using his entrepreneurial and street smarts to make whatever difference he can -- in some of the worst areas on the planet. His is a life of extremes. On any given day you might find Bobby living in a tent in Karachi, sharing a toilet with 40 monks in the Himalayas, working alongside President Kagame in Rwanda, or discussing science education with the Dalai Lama in India."

Please buy this series (of course am not affiliated with it in any shape or form) and show your support for uplifting materials based on gritty idealism ... It's time to bring back the Americans' Can Do, Will Do, spirit.