If one year's back on my shoulder

[sovay]

Not having read any of the source novels, approximately twenty minutes into the first series of Poldark (1975–77) as I lay on the couch self-medicating with the late eighteenth century, I remarked to spatch, "Is there any aspect of this homecoming that is not going to be a clusterfuck?" on which the answer turned out to be no, whence it seems the engine of the plot. Since I came to this show by having to wait for the third season of Turn: Washington's Spies (2014–17) to arrive at my local branch library, I was more than ordinarily entertained by the line pertaining to the hero's soldiering past, "Shocking business, eh? Losing the Colonies." The bomber leather frock coat is as impressive as advertised.

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

Turn is available through PBS's Passport system if you have access to that.
https://www.pbs.org/show/turn-washingtons-spies/
I watched some of the first season on TV when it originally aired but was so irritated at the historical inaccuracy of Sam Adams that I quit.

The 2015 remake of Poldark starring Aidan Turner was very pretty to look at, but my recollection is of too much rapid horse riding back and forth. I love this behind the scenes dance rehearsal. AT was s cpmpetition dancer before he was an actor and I guess the show's choreographer decided to goof with that
https://youtu.be/dhrcALuT-gI?feature=shared

[sovay]

Turn is available through PBS's Passport system if you have access to that.

I do not, alas, although I appreciate the pointer! I managed to watch the first two seasons through an irritating but free streaming service and will figure out what to do about the fourth season—which for reasons incomprehensible to me never received a home media release in this country—when I get to it.

I watched some of the first season on TV when it originally aired but was so irritated at the historical inaccuracy of Sam Adams that I quit.

I don't believe Sam Adams is a character in Turn, but there's still plenty to bounce off of in the first season, which is the most patriotically simplified, least morally complex of the four. I got about three episodes in the first time around and shouted to spatch, "It's like the script sang eighteen choruses of 'Yankee Doodle,' drank one last rum for the road, and threw up!" It snaps into focus with itself in the first-season finale and builds on just about every level until the third and strongest season can be seriously described as late eighteenth century le Carré. The fourth season suffers from needing to cram two planned seasons into one and therefore while it contains some of the show's best payoffs, it also goes by so fast it's possible to blink and miss the Battle of Yorktown. I am intensely fond of it as a show, but warn people about the first season every time.

I love this behind the scenes dance rehearsal. AT was s cpmpetition dancer before he was an actor and I guess the show's choreographer decided to goof with that

Thank you: I didn't know that about Aidan Turner and that clip is delightful.

[moon_custafer]

I’ve just forwarded that clip to my mom, who read the books and also is in a folk-dancing group.

[sovay]

I’ve just forwarded that clip to my mom, who read the books and also is in a folk-dancing group.

I also liked the sequence in the second episode where the entertainment at a market is a mummers' play with St. George slain and the Doctor called for and all, and because it was the mid-'70's and the folk revival was all over the place, I'm really hoping the production just found a troupe of mummers and let them do their thing.

[nineweaving]

Hear, hear!

Nine

[sovay]

Hear, hear!

"Take a drop of me nellycampane
And rise to fight Saint George again!"

(After which I have Kipling's "Our Fathers of Old" in my head for the rest of the episode.)

[nineweaving]

Glorious!

Nine