North and South (2004) episodes 3 and 4 impressions.
Let’s talk about episodes 3 and 4!
The second part of the novel is a bit of a mess… more than a bit of a mess. Some shameless Deus ex-machinas were used, the time lapse between the last times Mr. Thornton and Margaret saw each other was too long, the ending too abrupt and short, so I was really interested in seeing what they did with that.
Overall success on shuffling the plot around to make things smoother: kudos.
But… but… but… let’s talk over the bad, the good, and the amazing, in that order.
I disliked/found fault with:
YOU GAVE US THE PLOT POINT OF THORNTON BUYING FRUIT FOR MRS. HALE AND DIDN’T SHOW US HIM BURSTING INTO THEIR PARLOR WITH “I SAW THIS FRUIT AND THOUGHT YOU’D LIKE IT MADAM HAVE A GOOD DAY” AND DISAPPEAR THE SAME WAY HE CAME. A CRIME. A TRUE CRIME.
Also, it isn’t mentioned that he brings the fruit because he is keeping up with the doctor about Mrs. Hale’s health and he told him fresh fruit would do her good and that the Hales couldn’t afford it (same goes for the kindness of having their wallpaper changed).
Miss Latimer. With this I’m on the fence. On one hand, it ties nicely with Fanny’s marrying the old man, and the sock punch that is when Fanny tells John after he’s broke that miss Latimer won’t have him, making a contrast with Margaret, also tying in with the speculation, Mr. Bell, Margaret seeing the speculation money as bad money she feels would be better invested in John’s mill, etc, etc, etc. But then Miss Latimer feels unnecessary, there’s already too much between Thornton and Margaret to add something else, and eat up screen time.
We didn’t have Thornton tell himself that he’d keep loving her, no matter what. Given that they kind of dropped the so much use of letters between Margaret and Edith, they could have added some internal monologue from Thornton in one of his strolls. We don’t get to know, for example, that he didn’t doubt Margaret’s innocence.
Margaret sending a letter to Frederick here seems like a stupid thing she does just because she talked with Bessy about her brother. In the novel she writes to Frederick because her mother pretty much makes her swear she’ll do it so that she can see her son once more.
The exposition. WTH was that thing they invented with the exposition. What. The. Hell. It is important to the plot that Margaret doesn’t have a chance to get out of the oppressive surroundings of Milton until pretty much the end. The scene is long an serves pretty much no purpose that couldn’t be achieved in other way. I don’t get it. So weird.
When Fred arrives, we have the scene of Thornton realizing there is a man visiting the Hales, and Margaret lying to him, and then the train station scene. Why? Why give two scenes of something that conveys the same plot point? Also, it’s one thing that Thornton might have casually been riding at sunset close to the station and a whole different thing is he being around the train station at midnight. What was he doing there at such hours? Come on, series.
Same as with the first two episodes, Margaret is not as affected by stuff as she should. We don’t see her cry when she’s alone, she doesn’t faint under the strain once she has lied to the police officer… it’s her lowest point. Come on.
It isn’t left clear that, though Thornton had an interest in avoiding the inquest for Margaret’s sake, he isn’t doing something illegal or unlawful: the man died because of his previous condition and not just Fred’s push. There really was no evidence that warranted an inquest.
Mr. Bell being more creepy. I mean, in the novel he explicitly tells Margaret that he’d like to have her at his home at Oxford living as a daughter to take care of him. Come on.
Margaret taking the reins of her own life. Because that would be satisfying if we had known how she had always been like a rag doll for her aunt and her cousin, and then the universal recourse and support of her family at Milton. But the series doesn’t show us that.
I really liked:
They dropped the plot about Nicholas’ alcoholism; also Mr. Bell never telling Mr. Thornton about Frederick, and then the way they handled Mr. Bell’s death to make it look less ex-machinae… yeah, all that back and forth would have hindered the pace a lot, so those were good decisions.
Boulcher’s fall and death was very well handled.
The Higgins plot is the best part of this series, from beginning to end. Perfection.
Margaret sees Mr. Thornton at her mother’s funeral. I understand that Gaskell needed to draw the tension there, but it wasn’t needed for the series.
The scene of Latimer offering Thornton to join the speculation.
Mr. Bell almost telling Thornton that it was Fred who he saw with Margaret at the train station.
Fanny going to gloat on John’s face. Don’t get me wrong, it made me want to beat the breath out of her, which means it was an effective scene.
I loved, be still my beating heart:
We got a good lot of Mr. Thornton walking, and that’s a treasure.
Thornton’s scene with his mother after Margaret rejects him. Pretty much every scene between these two is *chef kiss*. When he refuses to speculate, when he falls asleep at his desk and she goes over and covers him with her shawl… :3
Frederick comes home to see his mother and then leaves.
The relationship between Nicholas and Thornton. This is what the whole series should have been like. It’s with the Mr. and Mrs. Thornton scenes, the thing that feels like Gaskell’s writing. It has the drama, the seriousness, but also fun and lighthearted parts and lines, with a quaintness to it that makes it endearing.
Margaret actually taking leave of Thornton instead of just leaving the book for Dixon to give to him.
LOOK BACK. LOOK BACK AT ME. The tone of Hermitage’s voice makes that scene. OH MY.
Thornton’s face when he says “It was her brother”.
The ending. Oh, the ending. Perfect. Amazing. Heartstopping. We have the yellow roses (and we see how different Thornton giving the yellow rose to her is from Henry doing so); Thorton is comforted and softened by Helstone after all his misfortunes because it is the place Margaret grew up at; she has been to Milton, he has been to Helstone, and now they understand each other perfectly, there are no misunderstandings now. She went North as he went South, and then they meet halfway, in the middle. THE FREAKING SYMBOLISM.
“You are coming home with me?” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
PS: every time Frederick appeared I was like: FRANK CHURCHILL.
Reposted from https://lies.tumblr.com/post/613388769925742592.
Tags: cannot resist meta.
