Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)If you are a fan of English costume drama, interested in amiable depiction of High Victorian Society, if you liked the most recent BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, and, most particularly, if you ever were forced to slog through Anthony Trollope's endless series of lengthy novels recounting the peregrinations of the Duke of Omnium, Phineas Finn, et al, then this is the series for you. It may be most interesting to the long suffering Trollope-reader. I believe that his novels were a sort of 1840s counterpart to modern cable TV. They were made to be read in the evenings, often aloud to gatherings of family and friends. And, since there was little competition for polite entertainment, there was undoubtedly little incentive for the listeners to want the stories rushed to an end. Hence, the elegantly written descriptions of drawing room rivalries, scrapes most often between the honorable and landholding wealthy and the rather dishonorable new-rich tended to drag on and on...and on. This TV treatment, although not a great commercial success in Britain when it was made thirty years ago, is therefore surprisingly successful - the acting, though criticised as stilted, actually is stylised. The basic drama of the situations (will the grand Duke of Omnium crush his defeated rival when they at last meet at some European gambling Spa? Will whatsisname, the preppy son of the Duke make good on his promise to marry the American adventuress?) comes across much better - and MUCH faster - through the TV episodes, and frankly make Trollope quite entertaining in the process.
Occasionally, TV takes narrative forms from the past and does make them paced and pallatable for new audiences. This series is still not for fans of fast editing, car crashes, and gore. It is, however, well-paced, mannered, elegant, wholesome and intelligent drama that should have been released to the public decades ago.
I have looked for it from time to time for over twenty years - having viewed these episodes as a young school teacher in Singapore in the 70s, where anything from Britain or America was a lifeline to home. I will look forward to watching it again, in senile rapture, rooting for the Duke and wishing ill on the many rascals that surround him.
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PALLISERS - DVD Movie
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