Ok, whilst this episode does move back to being more akin to the book, it's not what people wanted to see as it plays the havoc with the continuity of the filmed saga and destroys the integrity of the characters that we have invested so much time and admiration in the previous two series.
Only stock footage of Patrick Swayze is used and a body double is used in the scene where the character of Orry Main is murdered by a knife and a runaway smoke machine.
His murderer the evil Elkanah Bent, Who we previously saw blown to smithereens in the penultimate episode of Book II. The opening narration at the beginning by John Jakes doesn't even try to explain Bent's miraculous survival, only that he is alive by some 'quirk of fate'. Which is the biggest character revival cop out since Bobby Ewing came out of the shower, as NO ONE could have been in that explosion and not get turned into crispy duck.
Obviously made on a budget less than my weekly grocery shop and filmed on what looks like a handycam, the film lacks the spectacle, vistas and professionalism that so impressed viewers years before.
We have a new Main brother in the form of Cooper Main, hitherto never mentioned in the television saga played uninspiringly by Robert Wagner who must have been paid in herring judging by this lacklustre performance.
Even the established actors in the cast seems to have forgotten how to act as there a lot of scenes that are actually painful to watch.
RIp Torn is the only one that even turns in half decent performance.
The timeline is all to pot too. This film was supposed to be set a mere months after the events of Season II, which ended in 1865, meanwhile Charles' son Gus who was born somewhere between the time Charles had helped liberate George from Prison in December 1864, but before Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865, but is now a 5 year old boy that can walk and talk, yet Orry and Madeline's son is still a baby and was supposedly born before Gus. This makes no sense.
The fact that George and Madeline start to have feelings for each other is 'icky' there are a lot of other absences that are never explained.
This could have been made as a story about a southern families trial and hardship following the South's defeat and not been part of the North and South saga and had a different set of characters entirely and it probably would have fared better, as it is, it is an just an abomination that everyone who loves the North and South saga should give the widest berth possible and be happy that the televised saga of the Main's and the Hazzard's ended at the end of Book II.
This is a classic example of what not to do when adapting a book to television. You either need to stick to the book, or change it completely, not never EVER flit between the two as all momentum can be lost instantaneously.
Only stock footage of Patrick Swayze is used and a body double is used in the scene where the character of Orry Main is murdered by a knife and a runaway smoke machine.
His murderer the evil Elkanah Bent, Who we previously saw blown to smithereens in the penultimate episode of Book II. The opening narration at the beginning by John Jakes doesn't even try to explain Bent's miraculous survival, only that he is alive by some 'quirk of fate'. Which is the biggest character revival cop out since Bobby Ewing came out of the shower, as NO ONE could have been in that explosion and not get turned into crispy duck.
Obviously made on a budget less than my weekly grocery shop and filmed on what looks like a handycam, the film lacks the spectacle, vistas and professionalism that so impressed viewers years before.
We have a new Main brother in the form of Cooper Main, hitherto never mentioned in the television saga played uninspiringly by Robert Wagner who must have been paid in herring judging by this lacklustre performance.
Even the established actors in the cast seems to have forgotten how to act as there a lot of scenes that are actually painful to watch.
RIp Torn is the only one that even turns in half decent performance.
The timeline is all to pot too. This film was supposed to be set a mere months after the events of Season II, which ended in 1865, meanwhile Charles' son Gus who was born somewhere between the time Charles had helped liberate George from Prison in December 1864, but before Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865, but is now a 5 year old boy that can walk and talk, yet Orry and Madeline's son is still a baby and was supposedly born before Gus. This makes no sense.
The fact that George and Madeline start to have feelings for each other is 'icky' there are a lot of other absences that are never explained.
This could have been made as a story about a southern families trial and hardship following the South's defeat and not been part of the North and South saga and had a different set of characters entirely and it probably would have fared better, as it is, it is an just an abomination that everyone who loves the North and South saga should give the widest berth possible and be happy that the televised saga of the Main's and the Hazzard's ended at the end of Book II.
This is a classic example of what not to do when adapting a book to television. You either need to stick to the book, or change it completely, not never EVER flit between the two as all momentum can be lost instantaneously.