The Cazalets

Cazalets is a sensitive portrait of complicated people. The fact that all the main characters belong to the same wealthy family makes their portrayed individuality even more unique. Historically there are some minor blurbs. But love, jealousy, sex, suffering, sorrow, death are unique to all times. Money and name cannot insulate us from the human condition, as the movie thoughtfully expounds. Five Stars !!!!! in my estimation.

Beware if you hope for all four volumes (never mind the later fifth that Elizabeth Jane Howard wrote much later). This adaptation breaks off abruptly. Did they plan more episodes? Did the money run out? Were some of the cast engaged elsewhere?

That said, it's well done, though lacks so much of the detail of the books, and Elizabeth Jane Howard had a gift for detail. There are some fine performances by actors destined for greater things. There is a BBC radio dramatisation which is said to be fuller, though curiously only episodes 3-10 are available through the BBC iPlayer, which is just as unsatisfactory.

...I'm afraid I missed that altogether.

The series has just finished its run on ABC-TV in Australia. I just can't recall what the point or plot of the series was. It drifted through a series of charming 1940s vignettes (far removed from the realities of the war) but never developed any action, any interest, or anything much at all. It sort of fizzled out in about 1942 with a pointless wedding. That bridal dress must have used a ton of coupons.

As pointed out in another review there were some glaring errors. (i) despite having their timber business bombed out by the Germans the Casulets managed to keep on with their luxurious middle class life with nary a blip. Even kept the servants on. Hardly did a lick of work at business, before or after the bombing - obviously one of those wonderful self-managing operations. (ii) Never was the tranquility of their splendiferous rural retreat disturbed by the passage of hundreds of low-flying aircraft overhead. Couldn't have been anywhere in the south. (iii) Always bright sunshine, even in the depths of winter. (iv) The airfield, with a single fighter that taxied back and forth, was a manicured bowling green. A rutted quagmire would have been realistic. The windows were always spotlessly clean and never fogged up.

On the other hand, perhaps this is what WWII was like for those with pots of money -- a bit of a doddle.

Summary: 4 out of 10. A tremendous disappointment. "Dad's Army" is more plausible than "The Cazalets".

The new PBS series "The Cazalets" is billed as a latter day "Upstairs Downstairs." It isn't. The characters are far less finely formed and the first episode was a back to back (well, front to front) series of graphic sexual couplings. Set in England on the eve of WW2, it appears that nobody in the British Isles did anything in 37 and 38 other than bonk each other. Marital sex. Extra marital sex. Violent sex. Lesbian sex. Even incest. And this was only episode one! What can we expect in coming weeks? Kinky sex? SM sex? Bestiality? Really! This is not the mandate of either PBS or BBC. There are x-rated channels for such voyeurism.

The first episode also has some glaring errors. The word "flak" is used twice. A German acronym for "fliegerabwehrkanonen" or "anti aircraft guns", it entered the language only in the early years of the war and would have been in no-one's vocabulary in 37 and 38.

The first episode also shows the servants gathered around a small radio listening to Neville Chamberlain's address. Small radios were rare in 1938 and they certainly were not in plastic cases. There also appear to be no antenna or ground wires, essential elements of the receivers of the period. I spotted these two errors because they fall within my knowledge. How many others might there also have been?

It's an interesting snapshot of an interesting period of history. But like most snapshots, it was done without much thought or artistry.

I really enjoyed this beautifully filmed series. The acting was top notch, but I still felt something was missing. I think it's because I wanted more in depth character development and background. I looked for the books and now realize that his could have been a much longer more in depth depiction. It's still worth watching, but I'm looking forward to reading the 5 books it was based on.