This sucked.
I loved the book, and I loved Pillars of The Earth (book and series), but this was awful. When I saw the first episode, I knew this would be bad. I thought the intro was stupid and cheesy, many of the characters were uninteresting and flat and I couldn't really recognize them from the book. I liked Gwenda, and I liked Ralph. But I think that's it. It felt like all the good stuff from the book had been left out, and that they just took the names and put them in a new story. In every episode I had several "wtf"-moments and I felt that the story just didn't make sense.
But the last episode was the worst one, by far. They rushed to kill off three major bad guys and one monk who used to be a knight but who really was the king who everyone thought was dead. Okay. Did they just throw that in there? I'm trying really hard to remember if this happened in the book, but I can't remember it, and I think I would. The fight scene, which I felt was stupid to begin with, dragged on and we just saw a bunch of people we didn't know die. And when everyone was told to stop, they turned to look at the king, who obviously was in a spot that was visible to the whole town, with this really impatient and confused looks on their faces. Sure, confusion (and maybe impatience? I never fought) is normal in a fight, but no one was scared, angry or bloody. It didn't look like they were fighting for their lives.
And what about Merthin, wasn't he supposed to be a really good builder? In the book he makes Kingsbridge Cathedral the tallest building in England, but in the series he just seems annoying and controlling over Caris. I couldn't even see what the deal was about their love. I didn't like any of them. Caris was supposed to be strong and independent, but in the series it seems to me that she's just pushed around. It's ridiculous! And still people seem to respect her and listen to her. I miss Aliena from Pillars. She was strong and her character clearly developed trough the series. In the books I kept comparing them to each other, but in the series Caris was a big disappointment.
I could go on and on like this. Like, what the hell was Merthin doing fighting in the last episode? We all knew he sucked, it's like he was TRYING to get killed. And lady Philippa, why'd she kill herself? Sure, she didn't want Ralph to have her, but she had a daughter! It just seemed sort of selfish to me. And a bunch of the major characters in the book were mostly squashed under other characters.
I'll tell you what I liked about the series too, but that's not a lot. Like I said, Gwenda and Ralph was okay. I liked that Gwenda was happier in the series. And the actress seemed strong and talented, though I had imagined her accent would be more prominent. Ralph was ruthless and strong, and I do remember thinking that "YES, this character is developing! He has a motivation!" but now I can't remember why. I think I am too angry that someone allowed themselves to destroy this story that I love so much to think clearly. This will be hard to get over.
In all fairness, in Pillars they changed a lot from the book too, it's just that they did it in a good way. World Without End just made a mess of everything. The characters, the plot... I think that if they'd made 12 episodes the quality of the series would have been a lot better. They could have developed the characters and spent more time exploring the bigger events of the story.
My advice is: Don't watch this. If you watch this and agree that the first episode is crap, DON'T think it'll get better and be worth it in the end. The good parts are few and far between. Go watch Pillars again instead. Pillars is amazing.
I loved the book, and I loved Pillars of The Earth (book and series), but this was awful. When I saw the first episode, I knew this would be bad. I thought the intro was stupid and cheesy, many of the characters were uninteresting and flat and I couldn't really recognize them from the book. I liked Gwenda, and I liked Ralph. But I think that's it. It felt like all the good stuff from the book had been left out, and that they just took the names and put them in a new story. In every episode I had several "wtf"-moments and I felt that the story just didn't make sense.
But the last episode was the worst one, by far. They rushed to kill off three major bad guys and one monk who used to be a knight but who really was the king who everyone thought was dead. Okay. Did they just throw that in there? I'm trying really hard to remember if this happened in the book, but I can't remember it, and I think I would. The fight scene, which I felt was stupid to begin with, dragged on and we just saw a bunch of people we didn't know die. And when everyone was told to stop, they turned to look at the king, who obviously was in a spot that was visible to the whole town, with this really impatient and confused looks on their faces. Sure, confusion (and maybe impatience? I never fought) is normal in a fight, but no one was scared, angry or bloody. It didn't look like they were fighting for their lives.
And what about Merthin, wasn't he supposed to be a really good builder? In the book he makes Kingsbridge Cathedral the tallest building in England, but in the series he just seems annoying and controlling over Caris. I couldn't even see what the deal was about their love. I didn't like any of them. Caris was supposed to be strong and independent, but in the series it seems to me that she's just pushed around. It's ridiculous! And still people seem to respect her and listen to her. I miss Aliena from Pillars. She was strong and her character clearly developed trough the series. In the books I kept comparing them to each other, but in the series Caris was a big disappointment.
I could go on and on like this. Like, what the hell was Merthin doing fighting in the last episode? We all knew he sucked, it's like he was TRYING to get killed. And lady Philippa, why'd she kill herself? Sure, she didn't want Ralph to have her, but she had a daughter! It just seemed sort of selfish to me. And a bunch of the major characters in the book were mostly squashed under other characters.
I'll tell you what I liked about the series too, but that's not a lot. Like I said, Gwenda and Ralph was okay. I liked that Gwenda was happier in the series. And the actress seemed strong and talented, though I had imagined her accent would be more prominent. Ralph was ruthless and strong, and I do remember thinking that "YES, this character is developing! He has a motivation!" but now I can't remember why. I think I am too angry that someone allowed themselves to destroy this story that I love so much to think clearly. This will be hard to get over.
In all fairness, in Pillars they changed a lot from the book too, it's just that they did it in a good way. World Without End just made a mess of everything. The characters, the plot... I think that if they'd made 12 episodes the quality of the series would have been a lot better. They could have developed the characters and spent more time exploring the bigger events of the story.
My advice is: Don't watch this. If you watch this and agree that the first episode is crap, DON'T think it'll get better and be worth it in the end. The good parts are few and far between. Go watch Pillars again instead. Pillars is amazing.