The English period piece Sanditon starts as the genial Charlotte, played charmingly by Rose Williams, helps someone and is inexplicably rewarded with a free trip to a resort. There she meets a few people, one of whom is an old rich lady who goes on a seemingly endless rant, and goes into the water.
Most of that first episode is devoid of dramatic tension and is pretty but dull, but right at the end a little tension clumsily bursts into view.
In the second episode, there's loads of dramatic tension and the old lady inexplicably insults an heiress she is eyeing for a relative. I don't mean an insult in passing, I mean she literally harangues the young woman at a table full of horrified guests.
While the blandness and the lack of interesting things is my main objection to Sanditon, I want to spend a little time discussing exactly how badly written the old lady is, because it's truly extraordinary.
That rant in the first episode was long and dull, exposition the audience neither needed nor wanted. The dinner part scene is utterly perplexing - it's not just mean spirited by tactically inept.
And yet, while it's hard to say for certain from only two episodes, I don't think the old lady is meant to be an idiot. I think she's meant to be one of those say-what-they-think old ladies like the one in Downton Abbey.
But not only is her dialogue tedious, but she fails in the area that makes mean old ladies appealing in English period pieces - all insults must be filtered through an English upperclass passive-aggressive sensibility. But Sanditon's old lady is just a dumb boor.
The cast is good, especially Williams, and really, I don't blame the actress playing the old lady, because I can't think of any sort of acting that could overcome such a badly written character.
The series has the lovely look of a proper period piece, but it veers from tedious to infuriating with nothing in between. It is not worthwhile.
Most of that first episode is devoid of dramatic tension and is pretty but dull, but right at the end a little tension clumsily bursts into view.
In the second episode, there's loads of dramatic tension and the old lady inexplicably insults an heiress she is eyeing for a relative. I don't mean an insult in passing, I mean she literally harangues the young woman at a table full of horrified guests.
While the blandness and the lack of interesting things is my main objection to Sanditon, I want to spend a little time discussing exactly how badly written the old lady is, because it's truly extraordinary.
That rant in the first episode was long and dull, exposition the audience neither needed nor wanted. The dinner part scene is utterly perplexing - it's not just mean spirited by tactically inept.
And yet, while it's hard to say for certain from only two episodes, I don't think the old lady is meant to be an idiot. I think she's meant to be one of those say-what-they-think old ladies like the one in Downton Abbey.
But not only is her dialogue tedious, but she fails in the area that makes mean old ladies appealing in English period pieces - all insults must be filtered through an English upperclass passive-aggressive sensibility. But Sanditon's old lady is just a dumb boor.
The cast is good, especially Williams, and really, I don't blame the actress playing the old lady, because I can't think of any sort of acting that could overcome such a badly written character.
The series has the lovely look of a proper period piece, but it veers from tedious to infuriating with nothing in between. It is not worthwhile.