The Life and Loves of a She-Devil

It has been years since I have seen this series, but it has stayed permanently embedded in my mind. Everything that poor Ruth went through and then to see her revenge acted out was perfect. One of the few movies I have seen that does not diminish the quality of the book. 10/10

PS - The movie with Rosanne and Meryl Streep (She-Devil) fails miserably in capturing even a bit of the excellence of this series.

This movie has been on my mind for years. It was one of a very few perfect productions. The actors were on the mark, the story suspenseful, with unexpected frankness (for that time) in it's treatment of infidelity and the clergy. At the same time, it was funny as hell. Why it has not been replayed is a mystery. Let's all say a prayer for it's return.

I would argue that this work ranks as one of the best made-for-television mini-series ever; its just a stunner, and great great fun. And definitely made for adults! The fatal flaw in the story is that it ultimately makes absolutely no sense for the strong-willed and capable lead character to be in such relentless pursuit to repossess an ex-spouse who clearly isn't worth anything, but its a wild ride while it lasts. I am so happy that I taped it :)

Saw this on A&E back in '92 or so, too bad I didn't tape it. It was excellent. The more popular She-Devil movie is a horrible travesty of this work.

The main character is a woman who is extremely unappreciated by her husband. She is so demoralized by him that she exacts a increasingly insidious revenge.

Excellent because it is so believable, accurate portrayal of the darker side of human emotions.

If you notice this will be on cable soon, please email me and let me know what channel!!

Nancy

This was novel writing at its best and became TV at its best. I knew Phillip Saville, the director, and this was his best but the hard centre of sheer quality came from Fay Weldon, a friend then and still a friend. She is a really nice woman but deploys a brilliant venom in the interests of her art. She is currently (July 2001) writing her autobiography and it will be interesting to see how closely she admits to connections to her then husband Ron's behaviour.