Review of Parade's End

The costumes and sets are the only things going for this awful miniseries. One might compare it to a poorly written Downtown Abbey with better costumes. I was so disappointed by this series. It had so much potential, great acting and a lot of hype, but the script totally let me down. The plot and timeline were horribly ambiguous. significant events were either totally left out, or completely brushed over and you were expected to understand what had occurred without any explanation. There were too many unexplained loose ends which made the overall series painful to and frustrating to watch. Half the time I couldn't follow the dialogue at all because it jumped around, and you were expected to read between the lines of what was being said. But unlike a novel, you cannot hear the inner thoughts of characters and as such, are not privy to the themes running behind what is actually being said. The lines were brilliantly delivered by the cast, but even the most skilled of actors cannot overcome a sub par script. The only other thing that can be said of this mini series is that the sexual frustration of all characters was likely due to the fact that nobody had any idea of what was going on ever.

Oh, and they made Valentine incredibly annoying. She could have been awesome, but came across as a naive, whiny, self absorbed would-be suffragette chasing after a married man she was "in love with" after one night in the mist. Laughable.