I've become a sucker for PBS' Masterpiece Classic. A few years ago they did the Complete Jane Austen and I was hooked. I DVRed every one and relished each movie. The next season they had a great line-up including A Room With a View, My Boy Jack (starring Daniel Radcliffe), and a star-studded Cranford which has become one of my favorite movies of all time. I was even suckered into buying the movie if anyone wants to come over and watch. This season has been another winner with Tess of the d'Urbervilles (a great book), Wuthering Heights (again, another great high school English book), and a bunch of Charles Dickens--the first part of Oliver Twist was on tonight.
If you love classic PBS/BBC movies like these, I highly recommend Masterpiece. They are SO much better than the Hollywood versions (i.e. Sense and Sensibility). You can also watch online if you miss them on TV.
5 comments:
I agree. I never get to watch them first time out as we don't have TV, but Shawn can download a bunch of it and they are all so good. I also bought Cranford. It was soooo good. My mom borrowed it and I think she has watched it nightly for over two weeks now. She keeps asking me for more. PBS/BBC stick so much closer to the real story, and of course I think they get the culture and the feeling of the books much more than Hollywood does. The only disagreement I have is Wuthering Heights. I hated that book! I had the hardest tune reading it and if it hadn't been required I would have quite mid book. I had to force myself to finish it. I have watched the movies and they are really well done, but still the cruelty of Heatchcliff is so overwhelming, I just can't see what she ever saw in him. He was obviously mentally unbalanced. It was such an unhealthy relationship. No wonder her family wanted her to have nothing to do with him. Maybe she was the only one who saw a good side. I wouldn't want my daughter with someone like that either. The bad will eventually appear as the newness wears off. Each time I watch it is just brings back to me how much I dislike the whole story. But I suppose that is an issue with the Author and not the way in which they do the movie, so it doesn't count does it?!
lol, Kristanne! I didn't like WH much when I had to read it in high school, either. But I've read it a couple times since. I've been finding that re-reading these high school English book are more interesting as an adult, simply because I have more life experience to relate/compare them to. Two things I didn't like about the Masterpiece version, though, was they implied that Catherine and Heathcliff had a night together, and then at the end Heathcliff commits suicide (neither of which happen in the book).
BTW, that's awesome that you can download them. And how funny about your mom loving Cranford. It is so funny in such a subtle way.
I saw you talking about Cranford on facebook and I had never heard of it so I looked it up and the reviews were overwhelmingly good, so I put my name on the waiting list at the library and I just got it the other day. Now I just have to find the time to sit down and watch it. I might have to split it up into sessions. Isn't it like 5 hours long? But you make it sound so good. I'm excited to watch it!
It is quite long. They showed it in 3 segments on PBS, so there are good stopping points, if you don't have a whole day to devote to TV watching. ;)
How was Room with a View? Can it beat the Helena Bonham Carter version? I'll have to see if I can find it somewhere, because now I'm intrigued. Jane Eyre was pretty dang good, too. Let's hang out for sure and watch classic movies, as long as you don't make me watch Tess.
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