To the Ends of the Earth

A journey from England to Australia, but not as convicts. They are traveling on a well worn man-of-war, but the crew was just rounded up in the days before they sailed. So it is a well done period piece-costume drama set on a ship. Talbot is a young man of privilege, from a noted family set to take a government position in Sydney Cove. His first experience with the sea was to get very sea sick. But his deference he receives is due to his class standing, and he seems to not understand that is the only reason. In the second episode, another British ship comes along, and they briefly party together. On the other ship is a Miss Chumley, who Talbot 'hears' is a prodigy of another passenger, but instead she is a protege and he falls madly in love with her and really makes a fool of himself, but alas the ships depart without his beloved Miss Chumley. In the third episode, the journey really has taken a beating on their ship, the situation gets very dire and there is also a wedding. The grittiness of the voyage came across, but not as well as in Master and Commander (2003).

I love Benedict Cumberbatch, I adore Jared Harris, I was in love with Charles Dance when both of us were younger, and I watched this on Netflix on the strength of those feelings. The three gentlemen were impeccable, and the supporting cast equally so. Except perhaps Sam Neill, who presented a caricature rather than a character. But the whole thing lacked heart and conviction, it couldn't decide what genre it wanted to be, the pace was excruciatingly slow, it felt like a string of set pieces unrelated to each other narratively and cohesively. The visual aspects were pretty awesome, more's the pity. I wanted to love it but it didn't give me much to love other than the acting.

At last, something different, something different, something different! After flailing around (day after day) in the never-ending soup of present day cinematic, repetitive, mundane bilge ... stumbling across this wonderful series is like finding the proverbial oasis in the desert. I wish to thank the gods of Netflix for making it available and allowing me (admittedly late) to find and watch it. As a new-found fan of Mr. Cumberbatch (via Sherlock), I had just started to search out his other works when I found this wonderful epic.

I found it to be an excellent period piece that kept me enthralled and interested from beginning to end. And the end ... so refreshingly lifting in spirit and emotion. The language was impeccable and precise. The acting fantastic and the drama left little wanting.

I pray that the BBC Production Company never stops seeking out and filming these types of films.

To The Ends of the Earth is truly incredible. I watched it having been so impressed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the brilliant Sherlock. And he doesn't disappoint here, in fact once again in a performance wider in range perhaps than Sherlock he is amazing, as are the support actors. And it does help that the characters are well developed and that you care for them.

To The Ends of the Earth also has some wonderful production values. You can never go wrong with luscious photography, gorgeous scenery and settings and sumptuous costumes, with a period detail so evocative you feel you are there living the moment(the first series I've seen do that since The Crimson Petal and the White). To The Ends of the Earth has all of this, and also a music score that is beautiful, haunting and rousing and never undermines or overshadows the drama/action.

The story is rich, narrative-wise and thematically and always absorbing, and the dialogue intelligent and thoughtful while never feeling stilted. Overall, it is incredible and a must see. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Reliable. This is the word that has probably been most related to BBC. Movies they make can be great, good, watchable, but never a waste of time, a disappointment, a complete disaster.

"To the Ends of the Earth" is a typical BBC work. Time, place and circumstances that most of productions would use for a romantic story BBC again turns into a cold reality, slapping us in face by facts that those were tough times, and in some moments we almost expect a narrator to tell us facts about the ship, the organization of the navy, the geographic data related to position of the ship. They show us that this is neither a "Love Boat" nor "Bounty", and that a good story doesn't need such extremes to be told.

And as the story develops we accept the fact that this is the same hard work and bad conditions as Dickens or Zola would describe us in factories or mines in novels taking place in same years. This was their world, their reality. In these circumstances some traditional rules of well behaving change, some traditional interpersonal relations change as well. This isolated world with its past abandoned, present threatening and future obscure looks like Antarctica base in "The Thing", spaceship in "2001", desert island in "The Blue Lagoon" or post-apocalyptic enclave in "Testament". They all know that most likely they won't see civilization ever more, and even seeing next day is questionable.

The captain is strict and seems cruel in some scenes, but can't be compared to Bligh. Early years of 19th century are not remembered as blossoming democracy, and ship almost sentenced to sinking is impossible to save without a firm hand. And seeing wild crowd of drunk, heartless sailors (that is for sure closer to reality than crew in "Treasure Island" or Errol Flynn movies where almost all pirates follow their code of honor) you may get a feeling that the ship needs a real dictatorship to get any chance of reaching so distant destination.

This harsh reality is melting in the second, weakest part of the mini-series. Watching it we are not sure if we see what is happening, or some imagination or hallucination of the main character. Too big deflection from the style of opening and closing parts.

In the last part we are finally witnessing changes in characters, they become more human and not only figures that the ship must contain for realism in semi-documentary movie. Here we start feeling them, understanding their motives and behaving, expecting what will happen to them. The cruel and dangerous nature, the lack of humanity and the ship itself are still there almost palpable as characters, but not dominating any more - now we have alive persons to see and hear.

Unfortunately, the ending is too sugared. We, certainly, did expect that the ship will successfully reach Australia, but last few minutes are a typical 19th century too romantic final chapter, with a list of characters, good and bad, and their destiny, that was more or less obvious and expected before they saw the coast. Just saving their lives would be a very happy ending (almost a miracle), but that wasn't enough... I know that the director had to follow the old story and that brought in my mind the illogical and forced happy-end of "Great Expectations", still... any modern slimy American romantic comedy could beat this ending.

"To the Ends..." might be a bit too long (middle part!), but in spite of its end it is worth watching both for the story and for understanding how people really sailed, conquered and settled the last wild pieces of the Earth. At least it will be less boring than just reading history and technical articles about it.