Final episode thoughts

sorry, just to clarify what I meant about the "whole rape/seduction thing". From what I can remember of my interpretation of the text there was a lot more ambiguity about whether Alec seduced Tess. Aside from the "strawberry scene" I not alot was done to establish this. But I also believe Tess didn't know what was happening and presuming that she wanted sex because it was all a bit flirty is no excuse. Perhaps the issue was simplified, but the general sentiment of violation was harrowingly portrayed.

A film/ mini series can rarely have the same depth as the novel from which it is adapted, but it's a different medium altogether. It is afterall "adapt"ed.

I realise this is a different topic altogether, but I didn't want to brush over an important issue. Now I will shush :-).

Love your review. Perhaps I'm making excuses for it because it moved me so much, but if that's the case I can only consider it a success!

I though this whole adaptation was excellent and i was really impressed by both Arterton and particularly Matheson, who managed to make Alec so much more than the pantomime villian he could be portryaed as. I will have to re read the book now and become completely enthralled again!

I couldn't agree more. I think Hardy adaptations like Bronte and Dickens adaptations, first and foremost have to be planted firmly in an authentic landscape. Austen can slide a decade or two. The drawing rooms are more important than the countryside. But Hardy demands a close relationship with his environment. This is not an easy thing to do. It's about editing as much as scriptwriting. When Ecclestone first goes to Christminster in Jude, when Ruth Wilson walks around Thornfield on her first morning or when HBC gets the Tube in the opening shots of Wings of the Dove you can see the quality of effort made to set the correct backdrop to the action. In the episode The Mughal Room of Jewel in the Crown, seven minutes go by entirely without dialogue as two characters explore the empty governor's palace in a cobwebbed elegy for The Raj.Very little of that went on here.

Nor did they catch more than a whiff of the Laurentian throbbing that the novel is laced with and they can thank Gemma for what little there was. I think she had a better idea of who Tess is than the director.

So. For me, an enjoyable effort. On a par with the 98 production with more of the novel, a stronger but less vivacious Tess, a better Alec and a significantly weaker Angel. Decent playing from the minor characters, especially Rebekah Staton.

I won't be rushing out for the DVD but I will be rousing myself to see Gemma in the new Bond at the cinema.

I hated the decision to show Alec as standing up when he is stabbed. I think the BBC were trying to make it seem as if he'd been killed accidentally in a fight, rather than stabbed once through the heart while lying defenceless in bed.

Yes. No film or TV version has shown the attack as written. Also the fact that she says she killed him because he called Angel something offensive – "a foul name". (In the ITV version with Justine Waddell and Jason Flemyng, he called Angel a "spineless bastard". Which is reasonable 'fair comment' under the circumstances.)

I didn't like changing Tess line 'I shan't live for you to despise me' to 'too much happiness' and saying I am ready to Angel rather than the police.

That was a very bad move, I thought. Given Hardy's own remarks on this, it is pretty clear that her fear on that account is well-founded. To ignore it is to pander to the general softening of Angel that always seems to happen in film/TV versions.

I was worried when I read that a fantasy scene of Tess and Angel dancing had been added to the end, as a happy ending in Hardy is almost impossible, but shown as Tess final thoughts it worked well.

Yes: in context it worked better than I had feared.

I really misssed the final note of hope, Angel and Liza Lu walking on hand in hand.

But towards what?
Even if they were to go abroad to marry, their union would not be legally recognised in England until 1907. (The artist William Holman Hunt had this problem, when he married his deceased first wife's sister abroad.)

Here's my two cents (well, I guess more than two) regarding the final episode.

As always, Gemma and Hans were electrifying. You get more of a sense in this adaptation than in any other, how doomed Tess and Alec are as characters - that the paths they end up on will prove fatal for both of them. Of course, there is no doubt that Alec has returned to type in the final scene between them, but this only adds to the dramatic impact.

However, the final eppy is marred somewhat (as is the miniseries) by Eddie Redmayne's uneven and uninspired performance, which ranged from painfully wooden to merely adequate. The rushed courtship of Tess and Angel in the second episode carries over the same feeling in the last two parts - I had a hard time seeing why Tess and the other dairymaids/farmhands are infatuated with him, why Tess continues to see only good in him for the most part after he has abandoned her, and why she would make such a sacirfice (killing Alec) in order to get him back. Because of that, their reunion did not have the emotional impact it should have had. Having said that, the scenes at Stonehedge were an emotional powerhouse, but mainly for Gemma. Of course, the blame cannot be placed entirely on Redmayne's shoulders - the director and perhaps the writer must take some of the criticism. (And I did not particularly want to see Eddie naked - Hans, well, that's another story). I just didn't find Redmayne's Angel appealling at all, in fact, I felt nothing for him. I don't think he had much of a grasp of the character. Perhaps I am unfavorably comparing him to Oliver Milburn and the romantic chemsitry shared by Milburn and Justine Waddell in the 1998 A&E adaptation (which I think will always be my favorite).

I was skeptical when I heard about the ending that David Blair had shot for it, fearing it would have that annoying, cheating, "tacked-on" feeling (remember the 1995 version of "The Scarlet Letter"? Ugghh!), but I actually liked it. Okay, I more than liked it, I was reduced to tears! It fit so well with the melancholy of Tess walking off to her fate, with the wonderfully wistful "only if" theme, with "The Snow It Melts The Soonest" heard faintly in the background.

I agree that Liza-Lu telling Angel that Tess was at Sandbourne completely out of place and it should have been Tess's mother informing him. Maybe it was put in to establish Tess's wish near the end that Angel marry Liza-Lu and care for her family when she's gone. I just didn't see the point of it, I think it would have a far bigger dramatic impact if it was presented the way it was in the novel. And Tess loudly announcing that she had murdered Alec at the train station in front of how many witnesses? I know with the train din it probably was hard for most of the onlookers to hear, but still.

The music was lovely, and I do think the landscape should have been emphasized far more, given how important a theme it is in Hardy's work. The supporting cast was excellent - I have to say that I found Christopher Fairbank (Farmer Groby) a particular stand-out. I am united with Shirley in the viewpoint that considering this was a four-part miniseries, it had an opportunity to establish and present more than it did regarding plot and character (I always wanted to see the pheasant scene included), but on the whole, the presentation was good.

I have to admit that Hans was the draw for me when I first heard about this, since I didn't know anything about Gemma, Eddie, or any of the rest of the cast (the only other exception being Anna Massey). At first I wasn't sure how I felt about Gemma, but as it went on she really started to grow on me. She really is a highly talented young actress, and she really established not only the aura of the character but also a wonderfully strong chemistry with Hans' Alec. One of the reasons that the second episode left me a bit cold (besides the glaring lack of chemistry between Gemma and Eddie) was because Hans only appears for about thirty seconds, which I know makes sense at that point in the story, but I kind of lost interest at some point (although Gemma was still magnificent). I feel that the moment of Alec at the Clares' home had far more electricity than any moment that Eddie's Angel was onscreen. The first, third and fourth episodes were the best.

Overall, I enjoyed this miniseries. It had a very haunting and beautiful quality, and I will add it to my library. It comes second to me after the 1998 version and I definately prefer it over Polanski's film.