The Grand

I must confess I shop at bargain outlets and the best kept secrets are the DVD sections. Once you weed past the hundreds over produced fitness disks, you may just come upon a little gem marked $3.99. Such was the case with The Grand, Series Two. We were disappointed not to be able to find Series One in the stack, but have made it a quest. The costumes are beautiful and the characters little vignettes of humanity both good and bad. You endear the sweet characters and loathe the ones twisting a black mustache and plotting their next evil move. The Series does not pretend to paint a pretty picture. It promises "Secrets, Betrayal, Romance, Revenge and Danger." It delivers on each of these promises! The twenties were often seen as a wild and fun time, but they were a precursor for political disaster on a worldwide scale and I believe the series captured this well.

I rented the DVDs and started watching this series with great interest and high expectations, particularly due to the writer, and the presence of Susan Hampshire. Very rapidly I became turned off by the whole thing, and quit half-way through the second episode, I just couldn't take it any more. I found the characters somehow rather repellent, and felt that the writing was just awful, particularly the extremely heavy-handed emphasis on the leering "evil brother and his nefarious deeds"; I wondered why the producers hadn't given him a long mustache to twirl! I don't mind melodrama, but this one pushed the concept over the cliff for me.

My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed The Grand. The other review on this page is accurate in all of it's particulars but does not capture the feeling of opulence and grandeur that the series brings to the small screen. Contrary to the other comments, one does care about the characters from the original Bannerman's to the quintessential bad guy, Marcus. The writing, though smattered with some convenient dramatic plot devices, is terrific. The single best episode, when Clive goes home to see his father, is a masterpiece of writing, with compassion for someone "different", the ultimate outsider among so many others in this cast of characters. The unexpected turn at the end is marvelous. We are watching "Duchess of Duke Street" concomitantly with "TG" and the acting is so much better and deeper, the characters so much more filled out and the story lines so much better, that there is no comparison. We highly recommend that you stick with it. You will be rewarded. Incidentally, we got this out of our public library on VHS, so look for it there.

I thoroughly enjoyed season one. I became so engrossed I actually imagined they were real people. I felt for them. I was there. The scenes were amazing: 1) the son kissing/sobbing his love who admitted her true nature; 2) the wife and the brother looking at each other while the symphony played in the last episode of season one. It was spellbinding, another world, a dream. I was jolted, rather violently out of this dream during season two. The people were replaced with characters of themselves, who talked differently, interacted differently, and in some cases looked different. Actors/Actresses who were amazing were switched for horrible versions the second season. It would have been better to have gotten rid of them in this case. The script seemed forced and the characters who you grew to know and understand were acting grossly unlike themselves. I honestly could only get through two episodes of the second season. So sad. I will tell anyone, watch the 1st Season of the Grand...and that's it.

Of the many extended series from England, I think this is the best conceived & written. 3 dimensional, complex characters, rejection of obvious, feel good, wrap-it-up-neatly plot lines make it the most fascinating of classy soap operas. Flawless acting, direction. Engrossing.