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Yay, just bought 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' online and looking very much forward to it! Also bought 'Parade's End', simply because it's with Benedict Cumberbatch - and people seem to like it.

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"Parade's End" is wonderful, and I believe it was Benedict's favourite role. It is a very understated performance, all quivering lips and repressed emotions. I would recommend watching it a couple of times to really get into it.

 

The book, by Ford Madox Ford, is excellent too but it helps to watch the programme first, as the chronology of events in the book is not always easy to follow.

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Parades End! Oh my God, finally someone who likes Parades End! Ooooh, I am so happy. Oh, lets gush about that for a while, I am terribly in need of praising something wholeheartedly after my recent disappointments with Sherlock. Seriously, Parades End is my favorite television ever (it used to be in a tie there with Sherlock). And so far, I have never encountered anybody else who liked it. I've gotten reactions like "sentimental", "artsy", "convoluted", "cliché" from all people whom I ever showed any of it.

 

Oooh, so what did you particularly like about it? Did you like the ending? What did you think it was "about", mostly?

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Oh, don't worry, if I say anything about the plot, I'll spoiler box it. So glad you're giving it a try. It's really good, in my opinion, really exceptionally good and it got good reviews, but as I said, sadly I had never communicated with anyone who enjoyed watching it.

 

A few "preparatory hints":

 

 

 

- turn the subtitles on when you watch the first time. The dialogue is pretty important, even though I think the most important bits are between the lines, and the voices are sometimes very low

- stock up on kleenex before you watch. And I mean a lot of kleenex.

- watch until the very end, even though it's pretty painful along the way. It's worth it. Trust the story.

- know that it is an adaptation of an expressionistic novel, so don't expect everything to be strictly naturalistic. It's "more true than real".

 

 

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What? Oh, I was just looking for a way to spew out my thoughts on this without really giving anything away. Do let me know what you thought when you've seen it (and if you don't like it, rest assured that you would not be the only person who didn't. It just does not seem to be everybody's cup of tea).

 

Just one more thing: Have you ever read a Jane Austen novel? If so, have you impatiently skipped over a page of seeming trivialities only to find out that they were all vitally important once you've finished the book? Well, the dialogue in Parades End can be like that at times, I think. So much that is casually mentioned earlier comes back and plays a part later. It was really great to watch it a second and third time, I went "oh my god - I never noticed that before!" all the time.

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No, sadly I have not, precisely because the only time I tried, I quickly gave up because of the trivialities, and because I found it a bit hard to read, not being a native speaker of the English language - I read lots of material in English, but not normally books from the 19th Century. I do, however, enjoy the movies and series I've seen based on her books - in particular the BBC version of 'Pride and Prejudice' from 1995.

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I have "Parade's End" haven't watched it, yet. Just don't want

him to die at the end or something stupid like that. Especially after his wife orders his beloved tree to be cut down.

Have seen snippets, obviously.

Edited by Carol the Dabbler
Added spoiler box, per request
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I have "Parade's End" haven't watched it, yet. Just don't want him to die at the end or something stupid like that. Especially after his wife orders his beloved tree to be cut down. Have seen snippets, obviously.

 

Do spoiler box that, dear Fox...

 

If you want to know:

 

 

He does not die. The ending is wonderful.

 

 

And if you really want to know: SPOILER ALERT!!!

 

 

Valentine is very happy at the end, too.

 

 

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Oh do! And don't feel badly if you find you don't like it; as I said, I've never really met anybody who does apart from myself...

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Oh, me too. Totally. I need good endings. And trust me

 

 

The ending of Parade's End is really, really lovely. Beautiful really. A lot is lost, but more is gained and everybody I really cared about is alive. You just have to sit through a lot of pain and sadness on the way. But it's not meaningless, cruel pain and sadness, it's there for a reason. The war kind of does to Christopher Tietjens what people hoped it would do for Europe.

 

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War stories are not a big favorite with me, I will not watch "War Horse". But if at least a soldier can come home and find some kind of happiness, I guess it's all good.

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I usually dislike war stories as well. Dislike them a lot, actually. But I think Parades End is not a typical war story. It's a story about a man and the end of an era for him as well as his society. It's about loss and letting go and gaining freedom. And while Tietjens is a bit glorified (and deserves to be), the war never is, in my opinion. Quite the contrary.

 

 

The true hero there is Valentine, anyway. A feminist and pacifist and single-minded, innocent idealist. Needless to say, I fell in love with her right along with Tietjens. I love the part where he tells her he is going off to war and her reaction, how she refuses to admire him for it.

 

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"Parade's End" is wonderful, and I believe it was Benedict's favourite role. It is a very understated performance, all quivering lips and repressed emotions. I would recommend watching it a couple of times to really get into it.

 

The book, by Ford Madox Ford, is excellent too but it helps to watch the programme first, as the chronology of events in the book is not always easy to follow.

 

I thought 'Parade's End' was brillant, Benedict's portrayal was magnificent and touching - really and truly enjoyed it.

 

Parade-s-End-benedict-cumberbatch-324466

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Parades End! Oh my God, finally someone who likes Parades End! Ooooh, I am so happy. Oh, lets gush about that for a while, I am terribly in need of praising something wholeheartedly after my recent disappointments with Sherlock. Seriously, Parades End is my favorite television ever (it used to be in a tie there with Sherlock). And so far, I have never encountered anybody else who liked it. I've gotten reactions like "sentimental", "artsy", "convoluted", "cliché" from all people whom I ever showed any of it.

 

Oooh, so what did you particularly like about it? Did you like the ending? What did you think it was "about", mostly?

Oh! I want to talk about it - I loved it so much - but I don't know how to use spoiler boxes....

 

I personally hated the people who reviewed it nastily on Amazon, particularly those who compared it unfavourably to stupid Downton Abbey, which is basically a posh soap opera. (And Benedict presumably felt the same, as he said Downton was rubbish - for which he was criticised in the UK press.). I particularly loathed the person who said Christopher Tietjens was "very weak.". How dumb can you be? He isn't weak, he is an honourable man who lives by a moral code that other people have abandoned. He sticks to it even at great cost to himself, when other people blame him for things of which he is wholly innocent. My heart bled for him, both in the book and the tv series.

 

I thought Benedict's performance was masterly - subtle, intelligent and sad. The actress who played his wife - I am afraid I forgot her name - was exceptionally good too.

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Oh! I want to talk about it - I loved it so much - but I don't know how to use spoiler boxes....

 

I personally hated the people who reviewed it nastily on Amazon, particularly those who compared it unfavourably to stupid Downton Abbey, which is basically a posh soap opera. (And Benedict presumably felt the same, as he said Downton was rubbish - for which he was criticised in the UK press.). I particularly loathed the person who said Christopher Tietjens was "very weak.". How dumb can you be? He isn't weak, he is an honourable man who lives by a moral code that other people have abandoned. He sticks to it even at great cost to himself, when other people blame him for things of which he is wholly innocent. My heart bled for him, both in the book and the tv series.

 

I thought Benedict's performance was masterly - subtle, intelligent and sad. The actress who played his wife - I am afraid I forgot her name - was exceptionally good too.

 

Spoiler boxes... okay. This one is actually easy. Write whatever you want. Then highlight it. Then click on the symbol with the "!" inside a red triangle. A box will pop up. Click "ok" on that one. That's all.

 

The actress who plays Sylvia Tietjens is Rebecca Hall. I adored her in that role. One of the many things I love about Parades End is that it has these really strong women without seeming to want to drive home a point. 

 

 

 

Christopher Tietjens weak? Huh? That is a strange interpretation. Sure, he's vulnerable. He cries occasionally. He's visibly shattered by the war and he suffers from the confinements of his own ideals and he can't entirely cope with his marriage. He is accused of being "soft" by his own staff. But weak? Weak is different. His friend, McMaster, could be called weak, I think. But not Christopher Tietjens.

 

 

 

I can understand though why fans of Downtown Abbey didn't like Parades End. I think it is unfortunate that they were compared by the media. They really don't have much in common except the era they are set in.

 

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/>

Parades End! Oh my God, finally someone who likes Parades End! Ooooh, I am so happy. Oh, lets gush about that for a while, I am terribly in need of praising something wholeheartedly after my recent disappointments with Sherlock. Seriously, Parades End is my favorite television ever (it used to be in a tie there with Sherlock). And so far, I have never encountered anybody else who liked it. I've gotten reactions like "sentimental", "artsy", "convoluted", "cliché" from all people whom I ever showed any of it.

 

Oooh, so what did you particularly like about it? Did you like the ending? What did you think it was "about", mostly?

Oh! I want to talk about it - I loved it so much - but I don't know how to use spoiler boxes....

 

I personally hated the people who reviewed it nastily on Amazon, particularly those who compared it unfavourably to stupid Downton Abbey, which is basically a posh soap opera. (And Benedict presumably felt the same, as he said Downton was rubbish - for which he was criticised in the UK press.). I particularly loathed the person who said Christopher Tietjens was "very weak.". How dumb can you be? He isn't weak, he is an honourable man who lives by a moral code that other people have abandoned. He sticks to it even at great cost to himself, when other people blame him for things of which he is wholly innocent. My heart bled for him, both in the book and the tv series.

 

I thought Benedict's performance was masterly - subtle, intelligent and sad. The actress who played his wife - I am afraid I forgot her name - was exceptionally good too.

 

 

Haha really?  My brother has been nagging me to watch Downton Abbey.  Someone else then told me it was mostly for girls, and that he was weird for liking it.  

 

I'll have to check out Parade's End instead now.  

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