World Without End

Does anything good ever happens to these people? only in the last 10 min of the last episode - otherwise it's 8 episodes of depression. Don't bother.

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.

"The Pillars of the Earth" started with a great punch and a gripping intrigue. I enjoyed every minute of it until the last episode. The acting was top notch. So, I was eager to watch "World Without End" but when I did I didn't feel any interest. The characters are flaky and boring, and by the second episode I'm still not sure where the story is going. The casting is bad, the actors are bad. I wish this series had a true villain acted by someone like Ian McShane! Instead, the villains are superficial and lack any credible evil. Even the good guys can't be appreciated for they lack determination and assurance. A very disappointing start for sure, I hope the series improves in future episodes, but I'm not counting on it.

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.