I love historical drama (old history teacher)but this doesn't enthrall me one bit. I'm not pressed by Follett anyway and this seems to me to be infected by the Tudors and Camelot. I'm not worried by the odd innacurray or pearly-whites but the acting is below par with a selection of cookie-cutter characters. Frankly Brother Cadfael "did" the Middle Ages far more convincingly than this all those years ago and I think on balance I was probably grabbed better by "Robin Hood Robin Hood running through the glen" or whatever. Still him indoors is sticking with it and I can watch Borgen on me laptop.
Loved Pillars of the Earth but this seems like a badly done imitation of it.
I'd like to know what the budget was on this compared to Pillars. With that you could see they spent a lot of time on developing a brilliant soundtrack, opening credits, great actors and script. This one is missing all that and feels like a made for tv movie.
I think it's produced by different people or a different company this time round?
Made by Tandem Entertainment and Scott free productions same as Pillars and had a higher budget $46M as opposed to $40, so it is hard to work out how world without end looks so cheap.
Made by Tandem Entertainment and Scott free productions same as Pillars and had a higher budget $46M as opposed to $40, so it is hard to work out how world without end looks so cheap.
Colour me shocked. Something must have changed for them to make such a mess of it. I'm extremely surprised to hear the budget was even bigger than for Pillars. Like you said, it looks cheap.
I quite enjoyed it once the Black Death kicked in -bit morbid that way.
Maybe I misread the blurb in last week's episode but was sure it said 1341 when Caris got off the boat in England? Perhaps it was 1347, which would make more sense.
I didn't see the Thomas Langley as Edward 2 reveal coming. Completely ridiculous of course, but a surprising twist.
I have been kinda of watching this for the last few weeks going in and out of it. I was watching it while switching channels last night. My two question is this(Sorry i don't know the names) the evil Knight guy who consistantly wears black leather was marrying the blond frizzy haired girl but she rejected him last week how did that come about? And what happened after the marriage as she didn't look to happy?
I have been kinda of watching this for the last few weeks going in and out of it. I was watching it while switching channels last night. My two question is this(Sorry i don't know the names) the evil Knight guy who consistantly wears black leather was marrying the blond frizzy haired girl but she rejected him last week how did that come about? And what happened after the marriage as she didn't look to happy?
Ralph (evil Knight) became the Earl of Shiring.
He threatened to take the frizzy haired woman's (can't remember her name either) daughter as his bride if she wouldn't marry him.
She married him, sent the daughter away and then cut her wrists on their wedding night.
In the book, Thomas Langley dies of old age, and he is not King Edward II. The makers of this mini-series have muddled the plot up so that there are only bits of it that are recognisable from the book. Incidentally, I found the book much more exciting than the series, which has focused on the gruesome parts. Gwenda and Wulfric feature a lot in the book, and so does Gwenda's brother Philemon, who becomes prior of Kingbridge. I haven't seen Philemon at all in the series.
Ralph (evil Knight) became the Earl of Shiring.
He threatened to take the frizzy haired woman's (can't remember her name either) daughter as his bride if she wouldn't marry him.
She married him, sent the daughter away and then cut her wrists on their wedding night.
The author Ken Follett must have been raging at what they done to the final episode, totally unrecognisable from the book, read the book + POTE, TV adaptation was a load of tosh...
I quite enjoyed it once the Black Death kicked in -bit morbid that way.
Maybe I misread the blurb in last week's episode but was sure it said 1341 when Caris got off the boat in England? Perhaps it was 1347, which would make more sense.
I didn't see the Thomas Langley as Edward 2 reveal coming. Completely ridiculous of course, but a surprising twist.
I noticed that, it was like saying ww1 started in 1907!
The black death was first recorded in England in 1348 - surely it would have been better to use this date instead of 1347, to avoid confusion with 1341? It's not like they went OTT on historical accuracey ( the nonsense of Thomas turning out to be a king in hiding, really:rolleyes:)
And so many weak/perveted/evil sons with evil, manipulative, scheming mothers I had to wonder what dark secrets/hang ups Ken follet has in his own background.
For me, however, Goodwin the prior was so ridiculously OTT it was as if he was playing it as a cartoonish, pantomime baddie. I know that the church behaved pretty badly at this time, but Goodwin was just too bad to have prospered.
All in all, a load of laughable rubbish - but entertaining nonetheless.:)
Most of the characters were evil and twisted in the TV series. They seem to have left out some of the goodies, or at least just given them walk-on parts. In the book, Petronilla dies in the first outbreak of plague in 1341.
Most of the characters were evil and twisted in the TV series. They seem to have left out some of the goodies, or at least just given them walk-on parts. In the book, Petronilla dies in the first outbreak of plague in 1341.
It's funny you should mention that as she seemed to be on her death bed in the penultimate episode, yet she made a miraculous recovery just in time for the final episode!
In the book, Thomas Langley dies of old age, and he is not King Edward II. The makers of this mini-series have muddled the plot up so that there are only bits of it that are recognisable from the book. Incidentally, I found the book much more exciting than the series, which has focused on the gruesome parts. Gwenda and Wulfric feature a lot in the book, and so does Gwenda's brother Philemon, who becomes prior of Kingbridge. I haven't seen Philemon at all in the series.
Havent read the book (didn't like the first one) but Gwendas brother was in it, though not much. He saves her from being raped by her father in one of the early episodes, seems to disappear then pops back up in the last few episodes. Isn't he the one with the bow and arrow in the battle scene, who dies? Not that Gwenda seems to notice it.
There are moments of him standing by Gwenda when she stops her husband from being hung, distracting their kid while they're off consummating their marriage, he was at the funeral of Gwendas little boy etc. I assumed that was her brother, though I never caught his name.
Comments
Did think though yesterday's episode was rather boring and tame compared to the others.
Hope it picks up next week!
Usually watch this on Sunday morning but it wasn't on Virgin on demand or on the Channel Four website?
I haven't checked Virgin On Demand, but it has just appeared on the Channel 4 OD website.:cool:
Made by Tandem Entertainment and Scott free productions same as Pillars and had a higher budget $46M as opposed to $40, so it is hard to work out how world without end looks so cheap.
Looks very good, though.
Colour me shocked. Something must have changed for them to make such a mess of it. I'm extremely surprised to hear the budget was even bigger than for Pillars. Like you said, it looks cheap.
I saw POTE and this is on a par IMO.
The acting was good, with Godwin being particularly evil:eek:
Maybe I misread the blurb in last week's episode but was sure it said 1341 when Caris got off the boat in England? Perhaps it was 1347, which would make more sense.
I didn't see the Thomas Langley as Edward 2 reveal coming. Completely ridiculous of course, but a surprising twist.
He threatened to take the frizzy haired woman's (can't remember her name either) daughter as his bride if she wouldn't marry him.
She married him, sent the daughter away and then cut her wrists on their wedding night.
Thanks! Didn't see that marriage lasting.:)
I noticed that, it was like saying ww1 started in 1907!
The black death was first recorded in England in 1348 - surely it would have been better to use this date instead of 1347, to avoid confusion with 1341? It's not like they went OTT on historical accuracey ( the nonsense of Thomas turning out to be a king in hiding, really:rolleyes:)
And so many weak/perveted/evil sons with evil, manipulative, scheming mothers I had to wonder what dark secrets/hang ups Ken follet has in his own background.
For me, however, Goodwin the prior was so ridiculously OTT it was as if he was playing it as a cartoonish, pantomime baddie. I know that the church behaved pretty badly at this time, but Goodwin was just too bad to have prospered.
All in all, a load of laughable rubbish - but entertaining nonetheless.:)
It's funny you should mention that as she seemed to be on her death bed in the penultimate episode, yet she made a miraculous recovery just in time for the final episode!
But, it was no where near as good as Pillars of the Earth.
Havent read the book (didn't like the first one) but Gwendas brother was in it, though not much. He saves her from being raped by her father in one of the early episodes, seems to disappear then pops back up in the last few episodes. Isn't he the one with the bow and arrow in the battle scene, who dies? Not that Gwenda seems to notice it.
There are moments of him standing by Gwenda when she stops her husband from being hung, distracting their kid while they're off consummating their marriage, he was at the funeral of Gwendas little boy etc. I assumed that was her brother, though I never caught his name.