Mundo sem Fim

This series was disappointing for me. I saw Pillars of the Earth which was very good and so I was expecting something better.

I didn't give this series a one-star rating because the costumes were very well-made and some of the cast like Miranda Richardson, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Nora von Waldstätten performed very well.

But there were too many rape scenes, and I didn't like the incest. Is it really necessary to show incest in so many TV series? The anti-Catholic theme (lesbian nuns, gay monks, evil prior, executing healers, old priest draining blood) was over-the-top. In reality, most at that time in history were very religious and their behaviour was influenced by the fear of eternal hell-fire.

People were unrealistically naive and too easily fooled by Godwyn and his mother as they kept on murdering people, episode after episode.

I was disappointed in the then age 14 Edward III being cast as an age 33 actor in the first episode. Later we do not see his beautiful wife, and first-born son, just his third child Joan. The old queen mother had no power after 1330, yet we see her and Joan trying to manipulate Edward into going to war with France.

Edward III is cast as an indecisive, wimpish, dark-haired little man, but was in fact very confident, tall, broad-shouldered and fair-haired (a typical Plantagenet in appearance). Edward III has been one of my favourite people in history since I first read about him as child, so I was unhappy to see him portrayed this way.

Was that battle in France supposed to be the Battle of Crécy? It happened nothing like what is shown! In fact, the French in far superior numbers attacked with crossbowmen and mounted knights, and were slaughtered by the longbows. Where is Edward's son the Black Prince? He was just a 16-year-old at Crécy, yet did very well in the midst of the heaviest fighting.

There is plenty of interesting drama in real history during that time period, like the story of how Edward took Calais. But of course the producers decided to ignore that.

"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.

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.

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.

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.