The Forsyte Saga, Series 2
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Movie Reviews of The Forsyte Saga, Series 2
Movie Review: Drama
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie-saga is drama at it's best. Wow, just loved it especially the time frame it is set in. The actors have done a fabulous job. Well worth the money.Movie Review: the Forsyte Saga 1 and 2
Summary: 5 Stars
Great story. Loved watching it on TV back in the 60,s (Black and white) The remake is absolutely riveting ! Lilly BeeMovie Review: great show
Summary: 5 Stars
I could (and probably will) watch this again and again. Well done! Never a dull moment in this classic saga.Movie Review: Forsyte Saga II
Summary: 5 Stars
Enjoyed the "second chapter" of this story.Item came within a few days of ordering in great condition.Movie Review: What? The story of Soames Forsyte having a happy ending?
Summary: 4 Stars
For most of the four episodes of "The Forsyte Saga, Series 2" (a.k.a. "The Forstye Sage: To Let") I had a sense of disappointment that it was just not as good as the first part, produced a year earlier. I was able to trace my feelings to a couple of key points. First, I had never read the John Galsworthy novels and had not seen either the 1949 Hollywood film "That Forsyte Woman" with Errol Flynn and Greer Garson or the the 1967 BBC production with Eric Porter, Nyree Dawn Porter, and Kenneth More. So when I watched Series 1 it was all news to me. Then, unwilling to wait for Series 2 to make it across the Pond, I went ahead and watched the 1967 version. That meant that with Series 2 the story was not new to me and I was aware of some plot lines that were missing.
Second, Series 1 ended with the most powerful scene in the entire story. The tragic Soames Forsyte (Damien Lewis), having seen his first wife Irene (Gina McKee) leave him for his cousin Jolyon (Rupert Graves) and bear for him the son she refused to give him, has remarried and his wife is finally having his child. But the birth was difficult and Soames had to decide if the doctor should operate, which would kill the baby but save his wife, or risk both their lives on the slim chance they would both live. Soames takes the risk and is rewarded by the birth of a daughter and not the male heir he desired. Then word came that his father was dying and Soames rushed to the old man's side to announce the birth of his son. His father died happy hearing the lie and Soames returned to his home to be told that his wife would never be able to have another child. But when Soames looks at his daughter for the first time, his heart warms to her. It was a marvelous moment and a great performance by Lewis and I watched Series 2 knowing that it was not going to be equalled let alone surpassed.
On the one hand I was certainly right. The final great irony of the Forsyte Saga is that Soame's daughter Fleur (Emma Griifiths Malin) and young Jon Forsyte (Lee Williams), daughter of Irene and Jolyon, manage to meet and fall in love to the absolute horror of their parents. The young couple, of course, do not know about the ugly circumstances under which Irene left Soames long before they were born, and nobody is eager to tell them the story. Eventually it will come out and result in the less than happy circumstances that we have come to expect in this particular soap opera. This is not a saga in which everybody lives happily ever after.
The good news and the bad news is that I liked the final scene of this production. This is good because it salvaged Series 2 for me at a point when I was close to regretting the sense of anticipation I had enjoyed waiting for it to come out on DVD. The bad part is that it is a scene that created for this version and not part of either the original novel or BBC series. The climax of a work is not exactly the part to go off text as far as I am concerned and I am glad I was not as familiar with Galsworthy's work as are others who have taken this production to task for various changes and additions they see as violating his original vision. That is why I was able to enjoy Series 2 well enough, while still thinking it falls short of the greatness of Series 1.
Whoever wrote this adaptation seemed to have been as captivated by Soames' character as I was, and determined to give him another big moment that decidedly changes the meaning and import of the entire saga. The return of Annette (Beatriz Batarda) into Soames' life helps to set up the final scene, so it is not like it is it was just tacked on to the story. But I missed the way Soames struggled with the demands of modern art, which is now replaced by the symbolic irony of juxtaposing Irene playing modern music on her piano while Soames purchases a player piano. Galsworthy made his point with considerably more depth, which is what I wanted this time around as well. Series 2 really is reduced to the story of Fleur and Jon as something of Soames and Irene the next generation, and obvious "The Forstye Saga" is on a grander scale than that.