How do I bore thee... let me count the ways.
1. The narrator and lead character is a weak-willed, careless, self-absorbed bore. The flowery words delivered in monotone narration are pleasant to open the series, but soon turn to grating annoyance. Trust me, you'll never want to hear Jeremy Irons ever again in your life, after this assault.
2. While I realize that the UK is a dreary and drab setting due to the climate, does that really need to extend even to trips across the oceans? There is sunlight and colour in the world. I promise. But even on the rare occasion that the sun shines in this series, they manage to make it look like a single LED in the fog.
3. The first two or three episodes are misleading, presenting an interesting and bubbly young gay romance between university friends. But you and I know that a miniseries in 1981 would never get made if that was genuinely what it was about. And it's not. As usual (for the 20th century) the main gay characters become straight, celibate, bisexual, or entirely irrelevant, depending on your interpretation. But they do not live happy lives together. No, they must suffer and split. And once Sebastian is out of the picture halfway through, things get rapidly even more boring than they were. Shame.
4. Perhaps most damning, ironically, and not so boring, is the bigotry against atheists. Not only do we have a ridiculous deathbed conversion, after a disgusting performance by a religious daughter, this is mirrored by the conversion of the main character, for no apparent reason. We can suppose that Lord Marchmain pretended to convert to comfort his family. There is no such excuse for Charles, who has seen the damage that Catholicism did to the whole family. There is simply no way that this man would have converted.
So I give this a 6/10 entirely for things like the hunt, the ship, and various travels abroad. I cannot recommend it for the story or the acting.
1. The narrator and lead character is a weak-willed, careless, self-absorbed bore. The flowery words delivered in monotone narration are pleasant to open the series, but soon turn to grating annoyance. Trust me, you'll never want to hear Jeremy Irons ever again in your life, after this assault.
2. While I realize that the UK is a dreary and drab setting due to the climate, does that really need to extend even to trips across the oceans? There is sunlight and colour in the world. I promise. But even on the rare occasion that the sun shines in this series, they manage to make it look like a single LED in the fog.
3. The first two or three episodes are misleading, presenting an interesting and bubbly young gay romance between university friends. But you and I know that a miniseries in 1981 would never get made if that was genuinely what it was about. And it's not. As usual (for the 20th century) the main gay characters become straight, celibate, bisexual, or entirely irrelevant, depending on your interpretation. But they do not live happy lives together. No, they must suffer and split. And once Sebastian is out of the picture halfway through, things get rapidly even more boring than they were. Shame.
4. Perhaps most damning, ironically, and not so boring, is the bigotry against atheists. Not only do we have a ridiculous deathbed conversion, after a disgusting performance by a religious daughter, this is mirrored by the conversion of the main character, for no apparent reason. We can suppose that Lord Marchmain pretended to convert to comfort his family. There is no such excuse for Charles, who has seen the damage that Catholicism did to the whole family. There is simply no way that this man would have converted.
So I give this a 6/10 entirely for things like the hunt, the ship, and various travels abroad. I cannot recommend it for the story or the acting.