I had no idea that Cadfael was set in precisely the same period (the Anarchy following William I’s death) until I started researching the period recently. I was curious if the Stephen / Maude thing was real. The history in Gladiator does not much resemble what actually happened to Emperor Commodus, and I thought perhaps there were similar squirrelly things here, but I was mistaken.
Already on Netflix instant FYI
That’s cos it’s a Starz show, Spartacus is the same way!
For Canadians, the big draw is seeing Donald Sutherland (Bartholomew) and Gordon Pinsent (Archbishop). Those are big Canadian actors. Pretty much as big as they can get over here. So, I saw it last night and it was entertaining. Never read the book though.
I think the second episode was a vast improvement over the first, mainly because they weren’t having to shove it full of exposition.
The third was a vast improvement over the first two. Happy the show is getting better, thought the first couple were dodgy at best.
By the time they get to the fifth episode that shit is gonna be life-altering.
4th episode has a hell of a cliffhanger.
We just watched the first five episodes in one swell foop and are really liking it. Yes, eastern Europe production and such, but I’m going with it.
What was that with William Hamleigh’s sword handling? He was holding it by the BLADE.
I don’t know what magic gloves he was wearing…
I picked up the book and caught up to the events shown on TV (5th episode).
Minor vague book spoilers follow (character differences, no plot)
There’s two main differences in the characters: They flatten persona so the “good guys” are all good, and the “bad guys” are evil. For example, Alfred Builder (the son) smashes Jack’s statues in a fit of jealousy. In the book, he taunts Jack about his parentage and Jack starts the bar fight.
Prior Phillip is also 100% good guy in the show, whereas they show more nuances of character in the novel. Phillip (Alena’s brother) is noble, whereas in the novel he is thought of weak, selfish and much lesser to his sister.
His gloves were chain, if I remember, but yeah it was a stupid scene. Why grab the blade just so you can whack Tom over the head with the hilt? Stab him, dumbass. It’s a sword, not a club.
But man this episode was the most fucked up so far. Like NOTHING went right for these people.
Another uplifting episode.
I take it that I was the only person that had sound issues with it last night? I recorded it, and then about halfway through the episode (medieval sexytime) the sound just plain cut out. I thought perhaps was a problem with the station or something, so I recorded it again on the west coast feed. Same deal.
I guess I’ll just have to wait for the Netflix instant watch version or something, was really frustrating.
Our sound cut out right in the middle of the sex scene (wow, she’s much bigger than she looks in a dress). We switched over to VOD and watched the rest.
SPOILER
So you send a woman with a premie baby and no money to a foreign country where she doesn’t even know the language to look for a red-headed stone carver? I’d bet she’s raped and killed before she crosses the channel.
And so its over, anyone watch it till the end ?
It was alright for what it was. Kept my interest all the way through , though the cardinals death was super easy to predict :p
I liked the series but the ending was awfully abrupt.
SPOILERS
The death of the villains was particularly silly. The mob just goes “oh, they’ve got some ring that we’d never heard of before 5 minutes ago. Enough for me, murder these assholes!”
Yeah I liked it mostly, but the ending did seem rushed a bit. It almost felt like it needed one more episode.
The final trial scene was just punctuated by me yelling, “Oh come on!”
Nice cathedral, though. Still seems to have gone up kind of fast.
I’m grabbing this for a friend of mine and will most likely end up watching myself, but this talk of flattened characters is rather disconcerting. The source material was little more than Advanced Scheming & Fucking (Nth Edition) to begin with, so where they’ve managed to find the superfluous depth puzzles me.
At least the thread instantly redeemed itself through Gus_Smedstad’s mention of a Claudius series.
I thought the ending was fantastic, especially all the witch’s prophecies coming true (some self-fulfilling). I thought it was a little off when they jumped ahead 10 years and everyone looks like they’ve aged immensely, but Jack looks exactly the same. Wearing almost the same clothes even. But man did he look different when they jumped ahead even further and they bearded him. Totally different way of looking at him.