Parade's End is offputting at first, with Cumberbatch's bland, emotionally constipated Christopher hard to warm to and events somewhat unexplained.
But there were moments that caught my attention. Rebecca Hall is brilliant as Christopher's mercurial wife, and there's a fun bit with suffragettes invading a golf course.
This set the pattern for the whole series. There were good performances, like Stephen Graham's, and good moments, like the portrayal of war as a parade of idiots. But often it was unclear what was happening (perhaps because it was adapted from a "modernist" novel?), one character seemed to completely alter her personality mid series, and it was never believable that two women would be so passionate about the tediously ethical Christopher.
The period costumes and Hall's performance made this worth watching for me, but it was never entirely satisfying. I'm torn between rating it a 6 or a 7.
But there were moments that caught my attention. Rebecca Hall is brilliant as Christopher's mercurial wife, and there's a fun bit with suffragettes invading a golf course.
This set the pattern for the whole series. There were good performances, like Stephen Graham's, and good moments, like the portrayal of war as a parade of idiots. But often it was unclear what was happening (perhaps because it was adapted from a "modernist" novel?), one character seemed to completely alter her personality mid series, and it was never believable that two women would be so passionate about the tediously ethical Christopher.
The period costumes and Hall's performance made this worth watching for me, but it was never entirely satisfying. I'm torn between rating it a 6 or a 7.