It’s not easy to describe this series quickly - there are so many elements that make it work, from the constant ideas and setbacks surrounding Tom and Barbara’s self-sufficient life to the benefits and regrets it brings, to the excellent contrast between the simpler existence of the Goods and their social-climbing neighbours, the Leadbetters.
The relationships between the two couples (Tom and Barbara, Margo and Jerry) is interesting - although this was of course made in the 1970s when the second wave of the women’s movement was coming into swing, Tom often comes across as a little bit domineering and ready to overrule Barbara. The gut reaction of today’s viewer might be to dismiss him as a bit of a male chauvinist or someone who can’t understand how women think (one episode that springs to mind is when he cannot fathom why it is so disastrous to Barbara when her best dress is accidentally ruined - although she is happy to live the self-sufficient life alongside him, like most of us she is only human and wants to get “dressed up” just occasionally) but on the other hand, are Margo and Jerry any happier? In some ways, I suspect not. Yes, Jerry has a good job, a nice car, a house that the snobbish Margo keeps in immaculate order (to be more precise, as Jerry once mentions, the Pearsons keep it in order - Mrs. Pearson cleans the place, Mr. Pearson does the garden), many friends to entertain and they are seen in the right social circles (Margo makes much of being in the music society - perhaps because she hasn’t got a paid job and needs to fulfil herself somehow?) but the man is henpecked and harangued to within an inch of his life by his somewhat spoiled wife. (She overdramatises, in one instance, his “cruelty” in refusing to sign a cheque for an ornamental spinning wheel that she wants - it is possibly the only time he ever denies her anything!) So although Barbara and Tom don’t have the most glamorous existence, their struggles are arguably more elemental, more crucial. The harvesting of vegetables being threatened by stormy weather actually could be the difference between them getting through winter and going hungry. And their positive moments - the survival of the piglet, for instance - are all the more positive because of it.
The relationships between the two couples (Tom and Barbara, Margo and Jerry) is interesting - although this was of course made in the 1970s when the second wave of the women’s movement was coming into swing, Tom often comes across as a little bit domineering and ready to overrule Barbara. The gut reaction of today’s viewer might be to dismiss him as a bit of a male chauvinist or someone who can’t understand how women think (one episode that springs to mind is when he cannot fathom why it is so disastrous to Barbara when her best dress is accidentally ruined - although she is happy to live the self-sufficient life alongside him, like most of us she is only human and wants to get “dressed up” just occasionally) but on the other hand, are Margo and Jerry any happier? In some ways, I suspect not. Yes, Jerry has a good job, a nice car, a house that the snobbish Margo keeps in immaculate order (to be more precise, as Jerry once mentions, the Pearsons keep it in order - Mrs. Pearson cleans the place, Mr. Pearson does the garden), many friends to entertain and they are seen in the right social circles (Margo makes much of being in the music society - perhaps because she hasn’t got a paid job and needs to fulfil herself somehow?) but the man is henpecked and harangued to within an inch of his life by his somewhat spoiled wife. (She overdramatises, in one instance, his “cruelty” in refusing to sign a cheque for an ornamental spinning wheel that she wants - it is possibly the only time he ever denies her anything!) So although Barbara and Tom don’t have the most glamorous existence, their struggles are arguably more elemental, more crucial. The harvesting of vegetables being threatened by stormy weather actually could be the difference between them getting through winter and going hungry. And their positive moments - the survival of the piglet, for instance - are all the more positive because of it.