Period Drama Week Tag: Part 4

16. Who are your favourite actors/actresses from period drama?

Colin Firth

He's a great actor! He portrayed the definitive Mr. Darcy in the 1995 miniseries for Pride and Prejudice and also earned his Oscar for his portrayal of King George VI in The King's Speech.

Jennifer Ehle

Loved her as Elizabeth Bennet! She captured the wit and brightness that Jane Austen put into her!

Romola Garai

At first, I wasn't quite sure about her Emma. I thought that she was a little annoying, but then isn't Emma annoying at the beginning of Emma? By the time the miniseries was over, I grew to like Emma (just like when I read the book), and I knew Romola Garai was the best Emma. She also acted very well in Amazing Grace.

17. Do you prefer watching a regular-length movie or a more in-depth mini-series? Why?
 I much prefer watching a miniseries. With four or more hours, you get much more of a feel for the characters and their personalities and the story has enough time to develop, which is harder for a regular length movie.

18. What period drama has one of your favorite actors/actresses in it?

Pride and Prejudice

Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. 'Nuff said.

Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey has so many actors and actresses in there that I recognize. Seriously, it's like they took every actor that was in a period drama and casted them in here! Take a look at my review to see the actors and actresses that were in here that were in other period dramas!

19. Which heroine from which movie was your least favorite? Why?
I'll list a couple that aren't on my favorites list.

Nan St. George (The Buccaneers)

I just couldn't take Nan seriously. For the first half of the movie, they show her playing with her sister and friends and they were practically acting like five year olds. Her character also took an immoral route, which I really didn't like. She's just not a very good role model.

Evangeline Eliott (House of Eliott)

I always preferred Evie's sister, Bea, to her since Bea was always much more sensible than Evie. Evie was always emotional and based her decisions on emotion. I kind of like Evie until Season 2 when she came back from Paris. Afterwards, she was portrayed as being more "worldly" (kind of like Laura Timmins, she started to be a know-it-all). Plus, she made some immoral decisions, so I lost respect for her.

Laura Timmins (Lark Rise to Candleford)

I won't say that I always disliked Laura. During the first season of Lark Rise to Candleford, Laura was more innocent and it worked for her. She was just trying to learn how to work in the post office and to do her job right. She continued this way until the fifth episode of Season 2... when she met Fisher Bloom. Suddenly, she wasn't the Laura that I had come to like. Spoiler Then, when Fisher leaves, she spends a couple of episodes moping around about Fisher (understandable: break-ups can be hard). But then when she recovered, End of Spoiler she became this Know-it-all! She started to get a bit irritating. I still like Lark Rise to Candleford, but I definitely would say that Season 1 and 2 were the best seasons. Still, I would say that Lark Rise to Candleford a favorite of mine since Season 1 was so good!

20. Which three period dramas are your least favorite? 

In other words, which period dramas that I disliked the most. Here we go! Feel free to disagree, but respect my opinion on this question. This is just my honest opinion.

The Buccaneers (1995)

This is the one that I dislike the most. I can only describe it as horrendous. Besides the very mature, unnecessary scenes and themes, there really wasn't a character that you could relate to much. At least with me (and my mom also noticed it too), I couldn't take any of the girls seriously: they were much too silly for me. I will say that some of the scenery is okay and some of the costumes were okay (though some weren't), but they weren't enough to save this miniseries. It also seemed like at the end, the main characters were either a) unhappy with their lives or b) happy with their lives, but got it through rotten means.

Middlemarch (1994)

I felt that the whole thing was pretty boring... Plus even after five hours, I still didn't know who half the characters were (which, after five hours, you should not only recognize them, but really know them well). Content wise, it wasn't nearly as bad as The Buccaneers (though there was one scene that you may want to skip). But the whole thing came off as very dull.

A Christmas Carol (2009)

Two words: Jim Carrey. Okay, right from the movie poster, you could tell what kind of a movie it was, but Jim Carrey didn't help. I know there are a lot of people who really like Jim Carrey (though I never really did) and in certain roles, his hyper acting can be useful, but it really didn't work here. I mean, at the end when Scrooge was overjoyed, it wasn't Scrooge at all -- it was just Jim Carrey... Plus there were moments that resembled The Lord of the Rings than A Christmas Carol and there were costuming issues in the flashbacks (I know, I'm criticizing a animated movie on costuming, but it wouldn't be that hard to draw in/animate historically correct costuming). I can't say that a young child would enjoy it -- there are moments that would be too frightening for young children (hey, it was almost a little much for me!). My suggestion: watch another version of A Christmas Carol...

And that is all of the questions! Thanks for reading!


God Bless,