Anybody that loved the previous two episodes "Et in Arcadia Ego", which had a powerful beginning and set the characters and story beautifully, and "Home and Abroad", which built upon what happened before and introduced new characters and strands, should have no problem loving the third episode of 'Brideshead Revisited' "The Bleak Light of Day". It is bleaker and more sombre than the other two, but that is by no means a bad thing. The episode's events, that are faithfully adapted from the book, call for that tone.
"The Bleak Light of Day" has all of the brilliant qualities of the previous two parts, where pretty much everything was brilliant and whereas a criticism or two can be offered when reviewing something decent and more that could not be done here. If there were any flaws, they were not obvious to me. And that is the same in general with the series 'Brideshead Revisited' overall. While there is the 2008 film as well, for me that adaptation did not work and if anybody wants to use either adaptation to help with studying reading the book for example, it is the mini-series that should be the point of reference.
Oxford is picturesque and idyllic, and although times have changed and Oxford has also changed quite a bit it has not lost its picturesque quality. The photography, which was intimate and quite stunning (yes 'Brideshead Revisited' has held up very well visually in my view), complements it beautifully. Then it would take a lot for anything visual media related to make Oxford ugly and un-revistitable.
Geoffrey Burgen's background scoring is melodious and memorable, if careful not to intrude too much at pivotal points. The main theme is a classic. The script is thoughtful, emotionally rich and filled with depth, the bond between Charles and Sebastian and Charles' dialogue, as poetic as ever, is done especially well. Despite how he may sound when you read a summary of every episode of the series it does well in not making Mr Samgrass a caricature or anything like that, because if reading a summary that depicts him in a seemingly negative way alarm bells may ring.
Found myself relating to the storytelling in "The Bleak Light of Day" here, where you return to somewhere that was a large part of your life and it feels very strange to you and you feel out of place. This has happened to me more than once over the past two years and it really is quite unsettling. The momentum has still not been lost. Charles and Sebastian are still interesting characters, felt for Sebastian somewhat here though, and their bond is one of the mini-series' biggest pleasures in my view.
Performances are uniformly good. Not just Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons, in some of their best work, but also the quietly dignified but authoritative Claire Bloom. John Grillo is not one to mess with either.
In summary, brilliant and although the events are bleak the quality of the overall episode isn't. 10/10
"The Bleak Light of Day" has all of the brilliant qualities of the previous two parts, where pretty much everything was brilliant and whereas a criticism or two can be offered when reviewing something decent and more that could not be done here. If there were any flaws, they were not obvious to me. And that is the same in general with the series 'Brideshead Revisited' overall. While there is the 2008 film as well, for me that adaptation did not work and if anybody wants to use either adaptation to help with studying reading the book for example, it is the mini-series that should be the point of reference.
Oxford is picturesque and idyllic, and although times have changed and Oxford has also changed quite a bit it has not lost its picturesque quality. The photography, which was intimate and quite stunning (yes 'Brideshead Revisited' has held up very well visually in my view), complements it beautifully. Then it would take a lot for anything visual media related to make Oxford ugly and un-revistitable.
Geoffrey Burgen's background scoring is melodious and memorable, if careful not to intrude too much at pivotal points. The main theme is a classic. The script is thoughtful, emotionally rich and filled with depth, the bond between Charles and Sebastian and Charles' dialogue, as poetic as ever, is done especially well. Despite how he may sound when you read a summary of every episode of the series it does well in not making Mr Samgrass a caricature or anything like that, because if reading a summary that depicts him in a seemingly negative way alarm bells may ring.
Found myself relating to the storytelling in "The Bleak Light of Day" here, where you return to somewhere that was a large part of your life and it feels very strange to you and you feel out of place. This has happened to me more than once over the past two years and it really is quite unsettling. The momentum has still not been lost. Charles and Sebastian are still interesting characters, felt for Sebastian somewhat here though, and their bond is one of the mini-series' biggest pleasures in my view.
Performances are uniformly good. Not just Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons, in some of their best work, but also the quietly dignified but authoritative Claire Bloom. John Grillo is not one to mess with either.
In summary, brilliant and although the events are bleak the quality of the overall episode isn't. 10/10
