World Without End Review

17th Feb 2013

So what can we learn from the 14^th century? Well if you spend your life repressing your sexuality and become a religious fanatic you will turn into a homicidal maniac. Or maybe it just runs in the family.

World Without End is the sequel to Ken Follett’s hugely successful Pillars of the Earth novel and television adaptation so far as that it is set in the fictional Kingsbridge and apparently there are some decedents of the characters featuring in this story. It is set as Edward II is dethroned and supposedly murdered by his Queen and Edward III enters his reign (only 14 at the time). It is the start of the 100 year war with France and the emergence of the bubonic plague within Europe (you may have of heard of it, killed one or two…million). The story mainly follows the characters of Kingsbridge; Caris (Charlotte Riley) a woman who is fighting to introduce modern medicine, her cousin Godwyn (Rupert Jones) and his rise in the religious ranks, the brothers Merthin (Tom Weston-Jones) and Ralph (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), Gwenda (Nora von Waldstӓtten) a woman constantly fighting for her freedom and the mysterious Knight Thomas Langley (Ben Chaplin).

I have never read Pillars of the Earth nor World Without End and I think this is a beneficial thing when watching this series. After doing a little background research it is safe to say if you are a fan of the book you will hate this interpretation. The story is altered, some characters are changed and some do not feature at all. This is touched upon in the special feature making of documentary, Ken Follett does not seem bothered in the slightest. However if like me you are entering this fresh it is actually a rather engrossing story but not without faults.

I shall start with the positive aspects. As like all good loosely based historical dramas it does have all the elements you would enjoy. The brothers who stray onto two paths, one good one increasingly evil and full of resentment about his life, position, parental anger and general huge rejection issues. It has the beautiful heroine constantly fighting for what is good and pure. The insane religious character, driven more evil by his faith. The matriarchal figures who are more conniving and backstabbing than any male character. And the King wrestling with the responsibilities of ruling a country. The visuals of the show are stunning; the sets, the costumes, the hair! There are parts of this show which are wonderfully shot and there is no question that the director knows how to put together a scene. The impressive visuals of World Without End could well be attributed to the fact the same director is used throughout, Michael Caton-Jones, providing a continuity which can sometimes be lost when you have different directors brought in for different episodes. Overall it is an absorbing show. But like I said it is not perfect.

There are some things which you may need to overcome to enjoy watching, and whether these are problems do depend on the watcher. I very nearly wanted to stab myself in the ear because of Cynthia Nixon’s English accent. I really question who told her that this was good. However this can be accepted as you wait for her nasty character to meet her suitably horrible end. The rapes. Ok yes I understand we are making the point of women’s positions in 14^th century England, their lack of power and vulnerability as objects, however for me a rape in every episode was too much. The historical inaccuracy with language. I know it’s a drama written for modern audiences but I can’t help but be hugely irritated by certain things; the word dad did not come into use in the English language until a couple of hundred years after this. Don’t f-ing use it in the script, you are being lazy. The predictability of the script. Eventually it becomes tiresome that as soon as something begins to go slightly right for a character it all goes to shit in the next scene. And finally the sheer stupidity of the good guys. How many times do you have to try and outsmart the bad guys before you realize they retaliate with violent and extreme reactions.

Whilst I would recommend this for a lazy weekend remember to only approach if historical dramas are your thing. And to leave you with what interestingly came out as a positive for me was that whilst women were treated like possessions and objects this show, compared to many other historical dramas, does not show a lot of female flesh. You get far more thrusting male bottoms than female breasts. A reflection of a rating or a refreshing demonstration by the director that women are no longer these objectified visual pleasures and that you don’t need tits to get an audience?