Disappointing and unfaithful, with poor script Okay, now, just where do I begin? Oh yes, well the script was clearily a real problem here, with most the dialogue being just unfaithful and altered. It was completely irrelvant and inaccurate to how the story went, very forced at that. I would complain about Heathcliff being too pale, but that is actually the least of my concerns when looking at just how wrong they got this story overall.
They changed the story almost completely, portraying Heathcliff and Cathy's relationship as more of a typical sexual, modern-day kind of romance, lacking the actual temptestous theme their relationship was supposed to have. They are not meant to kiss that much and all those sex scenes, not even just between Cathy & Heathcliff, but Cathy and Edgar and Heathcliff and Isabella too were just so unneccessary and irrelevant to a story set in the 18th century. It was like they were just trying to adapt to a modern day audience, making it commercial. It's like they kept showing these sex scenes, zoning close in on them like they were desperately trying to make a point, like "Look omg it's a sex scene it's very crude, young people these days will love this" when no it's not about what young people these days will love, it's about what true fans of the original novel will love, who can actually appreciate period, traditional themes. This adaptation of Wuthering Heights was even rated 15, which seems crazy considering the original novel was not meant to be that mature and explicit in content. Heck I even first read the book when I was 10, as one of my school reading books (it was the highest level of course) and all the other screen adaptations seem to be 12 rated at most.
Everything about it seemed too modern to me, as there was also the matter of the actors/characters appearing too modern in their actions and costumes, as well as the way they spoke, especially Cathy, who looked and acted far too modern for the role. It did not give off that historical, traditional atmosphere with any feel of the 18th/19th century, nor did it give any real atmosphere of the landmark moors. In fact, they level and style of gothicness was just lacking, as there just seemed to be sunlight the whole time, rather than the bleak and bleary weather that is meant to represent the darkness of the novel and heathcliff's character, defeating the ultimate symbol and expression of the story.
The omission of important scenes along with changing important details of the story and adding new scenes/details of their own was another thing. Let's start on the omission of Lockwood. This is similiar to what someone also mentioned in this blog I found on another site about Wuthering Heights, saying that no matter what some adaptations may make out, Lockwood is essential, which I couldn't agree with more. This is because of course he is the one who provides us with the view of the reader, as from his perspective, just like us, he is just walking into and being introduced to the story. Not to mention of course, as a result of omitting Lockwood, you are omitting the significant, symbolic, memorable scene of Cathy's ghost at the window, which is exactly what this TV adaptation did of course. Lockwood discovers Cathy's ghost at the window, as she introduces herself to him, asking him to let her in, at which in response he of course screams with terror, resulting in Heathcliff looking for her ghost once she has left. Without this, you are taking away a key piece of the story which contributes to the ultimate meaning and symbolism of it. It is not only an iconic scene from Wuthering Heights, but an iconic scene from literature too.
Another omission of an important, ESSENTIAL scene was Heathcliff running away upon hearing Cathy telling Nelly that it would "degrade her to marry Heathcliff". In this version, Heathcliff just runs away casually, without even having heard this. She then as a result doesn't go out in the rain looking for him after hearing from Nelly that Heathcliff had been listening in and fled after hearing what she said about him. This of course defeats the entire point of this scene with Cathy's speech to Nelly, like they just included it 'cause they knew they had to as it was of course an essential scene and they'd receive controversy possibly if they didn't. It eliminates a great deal of the passion that the novel intended on demonstrating of their relationship, their love, with this scene. Instead, they changed it round completely so they had Cathy instead going out in the rain shouting for Heathcliff and getting sick as a result at the much later point in the story when she is first on her death bed, with Heathcliff finding her and rescuing her. Cathy then says when she sees him "I thought you'd forgotten about me". No, that's not how it goes. That's not what happened and Cathy was never meant to say anything like that, it was just making it out to be a typical, modern-day romance of two needy, childish lovers, rather than ones with a tempestous, passionate, complex, relationship, of untraditional romance.
Now onto Heathcliff. No, just no. The portrayal of Heathcliff here was so wrong, as I did not feel any sense of fear or anger from him, which is exactly what the character is supposed to project, really strongly too. Heathcliff is supposed to be cruel, abusive, angry, ferocious and villainous. With this Heathcliff you do not get that vibe at all. He actually just keeps the same facial expression the whole time, as well as speaking in a funny tone of voice, like a cartoon or panto villain, rather than that of serious anger and aggression. It's like he is trying to portay Heathcliff in a comedic, spoofish kind of way with the way he speaks, not coming across anything like as fearsome as he should. They have one or two occasions where he tries attacking Edgar, and seemingly kills Hindley, but you are still not convinced this is a fearsome, ferocious, abusive guy. I've seen loads of people saying Tom Hardy is the best Heathcliff and all, which just seems to me like they are biased, Tom hardy fangirls (or fanboys even) rather than actual true Wuthering Heights fans, who probably haven't even read the book, or at least prefer Tom Hardy to Wuthering Heights. I'm sure he's good in other stuff, but in this role this was not the case.
One thing that really annoyed me is how wrong they got the whole part with Heathcliff's and Isabella's relationship. They made out that Heathcliff was just using Isabella as a rebound, when in the book as everyone knows surely he seduces and marries Isabella as part of his whole revenge scheme involving the Lintons. This therefore again completely defeating an important purpose of the story, which was Heathcliff's revenge, or at least a significant part of it, the main aspect the story ultimately revolves around. It annoyed me so much how they changed this, with that whole dialogue they made up with Heathcliff even saying to Isabella "I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to love you." with Isabella replying "What is getting in the way of this process" and "Say her name!" Ugh, that is NOT and I repeat NOT how the story goes at all, that is simply not what's supposed to happen at all. Along with this, Heathcliff in this version never actually properly abuses Isabella, being just simply rather cold towards her, which again, along with him merely using her as a rebound and confessing he couldn't love her, eliminates and undermines the true cruelty, abusiveness and ferociousness Heathcliff's character was supposed to represent. That's another thing, the Isabella in this version was just awful and unauthentic, though it's hard to know whether this was the fault of the actress or the scriptwriters. Well of course it was the scriptwriters fault but the actress too annoyed me as a result with how wrong the Isabella character was here.
Over-acting was another problem, along with everything seeming so contrived. For instance in the scene with Cathy, Heathcliff and Edgar where Edgar says he's now forbidding Heathcliff from visiting his house, they make it so melodramatic, with all this constant, OTT yelling and screaming, like it is some sort of a soap opera, something again from modern-day rather than you know, the 18th century! It's like they just think aslong as you scream and shout and yell as angrily sounding as you can that should do the trick, when it's actually much more than that, i.e facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. All the characters actually disappointed me in this version, except for Hindley, being the only character who was actually portrayed and acted accurately.
I should also mention the unnecessary structure of starting the story over halfway through book, with the second generation, then going onto the beginning of the story with Heathcliff being brought home by Mr Earnshaw. That just made things really confusing, defeating the whole story's structure making it almost impossible to follow that way. I mean, why do that? Was it just yet again another attempt to be and come across all clever with a supposedly unique approach?
One more thing, it was a mini-series, meaning they had the perfect chance to cover the whole book, making it as faithful and accurate as possible. However, in the time they spent adding all these new scenes of their own, i.e Heathcliff fighting the other local boy as a child, Heathcliff getting Cathy the horse as an adult, the scenes of them at church, amongst others, they could've used that time to include the scenes that you know, were actually from the book, like with Lockwood and all.
Just disappointing and irritating with all the unnecessary liberties taken.