World Without End

This is a jolly good yarn - a clever and effective blending of historical fact (King Edward II & III era and the Black Death) and fiction. It's more involving than Pillars of the Earth - the characters are more interesting. It's also more violent with lots of hangings etc. There are some surprising twists and turns and a few exciting battle scenes. Covers a lot of ground with commerce, history, religion, politics, medicine, romance.

The cast is well chosen. Cynthia Nixon plays against type as an evil woman though her accent is a bit off. Oliver Jackson Cohen is quite charismatic as the evil Ralph. Charlotte Riley isn't beautiful but is a convincing healer.

The location and production is quite beautifully filmed in Eastern Europe.

There may be a few story elements that are too fantastical but it doesn't matter this is a good historical epic mini series.

I greatly enjoyed the "Pillars of the Earth" miniseries without having read the novel and was then inspired to read World Without End which I loved. However, having watched the first episode of "World Without End" miniseries, I am dismayed to find a greatly altered beginning, minor characters transformed into major ones, and drama that just didn't occur in the book. I'm also not thrilled with some of the casting choices.

Otherwise, the production looks pretty good. You will probably enjoy it if you haven't read the book. Be prepared for possible disappointment if you have.

I supposed I should go and read Pillars of the Earth now and find out what I missed.

It starts in 1327. The old king Edward III loses the civil war to his french Queen Isabella. She installs her son Edward III in as the new king. A knight Sir Thomas escapes after the murdered of the imprisoned former king to the fictional town of Kingsbridge. He seeks sanctuary as a monk. The toad Sir Roland uses his influence with the Queen to take over as Earl of Shiring. He launches a reign of terror condemning Edmund Wooler as well as the old Earl and others to death. Edmund's evil sister Petranilla (Cynthia Nixon) who poisoned Edmund's wife bribes to get Edmund freedom. Edmund's daughter Caris (Charlotte Riley) has the feel for medicine but the backwards world has little use for her except Petranilla is sending her to marry the brutal Elfric Builder. Petranilla's son is the weasel Godwyn (Rupert Evans). Roland spares the lives of the old Earl's sons taking Ralph as his squire while Merthin is given as Elfric Builder's apprentice. There are about twice as many other important characters.

It's a maze of characters. This feels like a cheaper version of shows like Game of Thrones without the dragons. It's work to stay on top of every character. Basically the theme is bad things happen to good people. The world is an ugly place and people are ugly, too. It feels very repetitive. The best ugly people has to be Cynthia Nixon and Rupert Evans. That's a crazy mother and son duo. Caris feels a little too modern. She should realize what comes with the world she lives in. She seems to be always shocked at the injustice. Overall, there are good actors in a reasonable mini-series.

The storyline was great, the acting above and beyond and the villains were cringe worthy. I saw this on Netflix and was totally saturated with it.

The villains were not only evil it made me feel as if I wanted to reach out and personally reach through time and strangle them myself.

I thought C. Nixon was very inspiring as a villainess. The sex is tame compared to the awesome Borgias series on Netflix. Some complete female nudity, male behind. The sex scenes were more like light Skin-i-Max TV.

All the ranting and raving of the book must say a lot and I might check it out. Although I understand it is quite wordy and time is not always on our side.

If there is something that leaves you full yet wanting more it was this.

This is an impressive time trip back to the middle ages. There are a lot of characters to sort out but a great group of actors. Tom Weston Jones is on Copper too. Amazed at the scale of Kingsbridge, which seems a lot bigger since Pillars -- and cleaner.

Love the idea that dung was the best available medicine of the day. Of course seems like some of the characters are finally catching on that maybe that's not such a smart idea. Charlotte Riley's character is the most modern, channeling the Englightenment it seems. As is Miranda Richardson. The state of affairs was truly rank -- corruption, scheming and violence of all sorts, plus the Hundred Years War with France.