Reader Question #12: Period Drama TV

I'm going to try to get back into Reader Questions. It's been quite a long time since I did these. My good friend Charity from Austenitis sent me an E-mail with a lot of questions in it a long time ago, but due to my busy school year, I didn't have much of a chance to write any of them up. So, getting back into Reader Questions, I will answer Charity's questions. At this point on (provided that there are reader questions for me to answer), I will try to get a Reader Question post out every Thursday.

Charity asked:

Which period drama TV shows are your favorites? Which ones do you recommend highest? 

Review: Poldark (1996)

I know, I know... I have said that I had no intention of watching this version of Poldark. After all, though it was planned to bring back Robin Ellis and Angharad Rees as Ross and Demelza Poldark, the film makers ended up recasting the roles to different actors! How could they! This sparked outrage in the Poldark fan base so much that actual protests were staged with the protesters wearing Georgian fashions. But my mom bought a Victorian movie collection that this Poldark was in (and from what I understand, the other movies were decent), so after we finished re-watching Series 2 of the original Poldark series, we watched this movie, though I didn't have any great hopes for it.

British TV Victorian Collection Box Art

Synopsis
Based off the eighth book in the Poldark Series, The Stranger From the Sea, Poldark (1996) tries to continue the Poldark TV series started in the mid-70s. The year is 1810, ten years after the original Poldark series ended. Jeremy Poldark, the son of Captain Ross Poldark and his wife, Demelza, find a strange man at a ship wreckage and rescue him while Ross is working in Parliament in London. As the man, Stephen Cravenson, recovers, him and the Poldark's older daughter, Clowance, fall in love, though Demelza senses that there is more to Mr. Cravenson's story than he is telling them.

Review: Poldark - Series 2 (1977)

Remember when I reviewed Poldark: Series 1? Well, since then, my mom and I have finished Series 2, which is also the final series (I guess that's the point where the author stopped at that point). We were very eager to know what will happen next and we ended up finishing this series quickly as for Series 1.

Series 2 Box Art

Note: This review will contain spoilers from Poldark: Series 1. If you have not seen Poldark: Series 1 and do not wish to spoil it, do not read this review. If you're interested in Series 1, read my review for it.

Synopsis
Ross Poldark, after re-enlisting in the army, has returned from the army after becoming ill to his wife, Demelza, and finds that his Aunt Agatha's home was bought by his rival, George Warleggan, and his new wife Elizabeth, the widow of Ross's cousin Francis. Meanwhile, Demelza's brothers, Sam and Drake Carne, move to the Poldark's home of Nampara to find some work.

Review: Poldark - Series 1 (1975)

And today we have another review brought to you by Netflix (I've been finding more and more period dramas on Netflix as of late. Yay!). I had seen this series around in multiple places: the BBC America catalog, IMDB, and more recently in previews on DVD of other period dramas. Finding out that it was from the 70s, I didn't think too much of it: yeah, maybe I would watch it, but I have other things I have to watch first. Plus, a lot of BBC period dramas from the 70s aren't all that great, right? Well, after finding it on Netflix Instant Streaming and adding it to the Instant Queue, I mentioned it to my mom and one evening we sat down to watch it: after all, we finished watching The Kent Chronicles (which the Part 3 review is coming soon, but I wanted to break up the reviews a little bit) and we wanted to watch something else.

Box Art

Synopsis
After escaping from a French prisoner of war camp during the American Revolution and his family believing him to be dead, Ross Poldark returns to his hometown in Cornwall in England to find that his father is dead, his home in shambles, the family copper mine nonoperational, and his fiancee, Elizabeth, engaged to his cousin Francis Poldark. Ross must work through his grief over losing Elizabeth while trying to restore his home and run the copper mine that his father left him.