I pondered for a long time about whether or not I should watch this sequel (or prequel, or whatever it is). My problem was that I had read the book and loved it, seen the original TV series and liked that, and having read its mixed (mostly bad) reviews and a little bit about the story I wondered whether this show would firstly be any good, and secondly alter my perception of the original and the book. In the end I gave in and decided to watch it.
Viewed on its own, this show is okay. Without knowing the back story it may well be hard to pick up large chunks of the storyline but I suspect with no previous knowledge of the original or book, the story, characters and acting are all reasonable. The production although (with nothing to compare to) is also reasonable, with the end result being a reasonable flashy and slightly over sentimental melodrama that was indicative of American television in the mid nineties. Indeed the only real drawback to this for a first timer would be the somewhat unsatisfying end.
However compared to the original and the book at first glance it falls flat on its face. It is a complete fabrication and alteration of the original story. It takes most of the original relationships between the different characters, rips them up and makes completely different ones (in doing so making many of the characters look stupid and spineless). The beautifully simple original score has a vulgar nineties up date. And the original sets and location that were so really and simplistic (in the way the arid Drogheda of the novel is meant to be) are replaced by cardboard looking sets and glitzy looking locations that remind me of something out of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, not the original novel! And to top it off the scene when Dan is surrounded by all the animals and birds at the watering hole looks so fake that it could have been taken form a Disney cartoon!
Rather ironically though none of the above really matter, because at the end of the day the whole thing really boils down to Richard Chamberlain's part it in all. In a strange way he is both the show's saviour and its undoing at the same time. The original TV series was brought out so soon after the book and as a consequence their fates and memories kind of got all mixed together. Unlike other historical novels or classics whose stories and characters where known in their own right before TV and film producers started to implant visual images of them into the public conscious, with the Thorn Birds the TV show created indelible visual realisations of the story's places and characters in Colleen McCullough's novel. Mr Darcys, Robin Hoods and Sherlock Holmes may come and go, but to many Ralph De Bricassart is Richard Chamberlain. The fact than that despite all the other mediocre things mentioned above that this show had him resume his role no doubt saved it from utter panning. However, having said all of that him being their causes three large problems: Firstly it highlights the absent of pretty much all of the rest of the original cast. Secondly it asks viewers to tear up the chemistry that was built up between the two leads over seven and a bit hours in the original and replace it with a totally different one. Finally, and for me most importantly, it asks you change that imagine of Ralph that you have in your head, because although it is still Richard Chamberlain, it is not the same Richard Chamberlain. In truth he was probably not ridiculously far of the age that Ralph was meant to be in 1942/3 when they filmed this, but the problem is that he aged naturally totally differently to how he was aged artificially in the original, the end result being in this show a rather older a fuller figured looking Ralph than what the original suggests turns up on Drogheda a decade after this show is meant to be set.
So do I regret watching it. No. Because despite all its pitfalls and tackiness (and out and out crimes against the book) this adaption offers (with a little stretch of the imagination and tinkering with the ending) something that neither the novel of original series does. An option of a happy ending. The beautiful novel despite all the surroundings of Drogheda, the Clearys and the Roman Catholic Church is essentially about a man's struggles against himself and coming to terms with them too late. This adaptation offers a conduit to the answer to that age old question, what if.
Viewed on its own, this show is okay. Without knowing the back story it may well be hard to pick up large chunks of the storyline but I suspect with no previous knowledge of the original or book, the story, characters and acting are all reasonable. The production although (with nothing to compare to) is also reasonable, with the end result being a reasonable flashy and slightly over sentimental melodrama that was indicative of American television in the mid nineties. Indeed the only real drawback to this for a first timer would be the somewhat unsatisfying end.
However compared to the original and the book at first glance it falls flat on its face. It is a complete fabrication and alteration of the original story. It takes most of the original relationships between the different characters, rips them up and makes completely different ones (in doing so making many of the characters look stupid and spineless). The beautifully simple original score has a vulgar nineties up date. And the original sets and location that were so really and simplistic (in the way the arid Drogheda of the novel is meant to be) are replaced by cardboard looking sets and glitzy looking locations that remind me of something out of Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, not the original novel! And to top it off the scene when Dan is surrounded by all the animals and birds at the watering hole looks so fake that it could have been taken form a Disney cartoon!
Rather ironically though none of the above really matter, because at the end of the day the whole thing really boils down to Richard Chamberlain's part it in all. In a strange way he is both the show's saviour and its undoing at the same time. The original TV series was brought out so soon after the book and as a consequence their fates and memories kind of got all mixed together. Unlike other historical novels or classics whose stories and characters where known in their own right before TV and film producers started to implant visual images of them into the public conscious, with the Thorn Birds the TV show created indelible visual realisations of the story's places and characters in Colleen McCullough's novel. Mr Darcys, Robin Hoods and Sherlock Holmes may come and go, but to many Ralph De Bricassart is Richard Chamberlain. The fact than that despite all the other mediocre things mentioned above that this show had him resume his role no doubt saved it from utter panning. However, having said all of that him being their causes three large problems: Firstly it highlights the absent of pretty much all of the rest of the original cast. Secondly it asks viewers to tear up the chemistry that was built up between the two leads over seven and a bit hours in the original and replace it with a totally different one. Finally, and for me most importantly, it asks you change that imagine of Ralph that you have in your head, because although it is still Richard Chamberlain, it is not the same Richard Chamberlain. In truth he was probably not ridiculously far of the age that Ralph was meant to be in 1942/3 when they filmed this, but the problem is that he aged naturally totally differently to how he was aged artificially in the original, the end result being in this show a rather older a fuller figured looking Ralph than what the original suggests turns up on Drogheda a decade after this show is meant to be set.
So do I regret watching it. No. Because despite all its pitfalls and tackiness (and out and out crimes against the book) this adaption offers (with a little stretch of the imagination and tinkering with the ending) something that neither the novel of original series does. An option of a happy ending. The beautiful novel despite all the surroundings of Drogheda, the Clearys and the Roman Catholic Church is essentially about a man's struggles against himself and coming to terms with them too late. This adaptation offers a conduit to the answer to that age old question, what if.