Product: Brideshead Revisited [VHS] (1982)
Rating: 3.0
RATHER A NICE WARM BATH
Let me just say that if Merchant/Ivory is your cup of tea, there's a nice warm lap pool of the Earl's Very Grey here and by all means take the swan dive if it suits you. At least with Merchant/Ivory one is always aware that Britain is pandering to America's endless Anglophilia. This is the series that Britons themselves emptied the streets to watch. But really.....is this 'The Grrreytest Tele-vIIIIIIIzed SEEEriously Ever?'? Well, it IS pretty good. You have Irons and Quick, Sir Larry and Sir John....what's not to like. It DOES look great and it's kind of fun.But the entire first 5 hours obsesses over the alcoholism of gorgeous Sebastian. Forget the fallout from World War 1.....our dear boy's a drunk, whatever shall we do. Then....he disappears!?! He WAS kind of fun. He makes ONE appearance over the next 7 hours.So now his long suffering friend, played brilliantly by Jeremy 'in the Irons of fate', falls in love with Sebastian's sister. Only he's married. Not to some peasant you understand. She's gorgeous and not terribly shallow. She ADORES him. So...he dumps her....for the sister...who is catholic...which he can't abide.....so she dumps him. Never mind the impending collapse of the known world presented by World War II. Never mind the end of the ruling class itself. That's all less than even a backdrop for the real action. This is elevated Soap Opera.Perhaps if they had cast yet another great Shakesperian, Patrick Stewart might have ordered his usual "Earl Grey HOT". Here, you may as well dive in: it's rather a nice warm bath.