Sindi-89500

Book adaptations can hardly get better than this. Since Herriot's books are, according to his son, over 90 % true, sticking to them is particularly important. Here we have characters and scenes that were considered authentic by people who were originally there. Siegfried is my particular favourite. According to contemporaries Robert Hardy got him just right, how exciting is that!

Compared to the 2020 series, here the realism of Herriot's books is embraced. The actors - or maybe rather, the screenwriters - are not afraid to get down and dirty. The priceless supporting characters are featured splendidly.

Just one thing about Siegfried, he was actually only about 30 when James started to work for him. He was a ladies' man, and to show this Hardy has a couple of awkward scenes with young women in the early episodes. Doesn't really work. There are also some scenes between Callum and his girlfriend which I find problematic. That is not original Herriot material, towards the end of the series they ran out of it.

These are very passing moments though. Visually the show is dated, particularly the first seasons, but you get used to it. It's worth it, I assure you. Above all I recommend the books.

I shouldn't hate this, since it introduced me to the brilliant world of James Herriot. Still, after reading the books and watching the original TV show, I can hardly bear this one. It's a housebroken, anachronistic, slightly feministic adaptation, which won't stand the test of time.

It must be mere arrogance, when screenwriters think they can ignore so much of the original material, which was written by one of the best storytellers ever. The screenwriters fail to grasp what is most exciting about Herriot books: animal work itself, harsh conditions, weather, old cars, drafty barns, eccentric characters. Instead they offer us cheap melodrama with characters that are altered beyond recognition. I'm particularly offended on Siegfried's behalf. Herriot's Siegfried is one of my favourite literary characters, he's laugh-out-loud funny. Why change him?

If featured, the best Herriot moments are mostly watered down, like James and Helen having a date at the Reniston.

Season 3 highlights the massive problems. It offers us several episodes with practically no Herriot plotlines. We're given a questionable WW1 flashback, tiring family drama, lame individualistic wondering of "who I really am" and endless brooding over joining the army. Many important Herriot supporting characters, like Mallock and Mr Barge, are crammed in one episode. Florence and Tristan have no chemistry at all and some extremely 21st century dialogue snaps you right out of the story. Even Mrs Pumphrey has ceased to be quirky.

Mr Harcourt from the ministry of agriculture is one of the few highlights of season 3, great acting. Mallock is ok, better than might have been expected. I find Mrs Hall's position in Skeldale house very anachronistic, but the actress is great and has a good scene at a railway station. In this scene diverse casting also offers a meaningful moment, despite starting in an in your face preachy way.

The show looks fantastic and I'm unable to dislike the cast. When you think of what this could have been, such a waste.

After two episodes I just had to find the book, the story seemed so obviously altered. There's a great new translation (2021) which I highly recommend. It seems that a lot of people, including the writers of this series, don't know that Verne's book is a satire. It's a satire about a wealthy, unemotional, self-centered englishman and his negligent attitude towards the wonders of the world. Also the character of Passepartout includes satire of eurocentrism. Inspector Fix makes us laugh about English byrocracy. The book also includes straight criticism of some colonial practices, also of violence and fanatism whomever it's practiced by. All in all, it's not a wide-eyed admiration of colonialism at all.

So why not make an adaptation of all that? I understand that some changes would have had to be made, since some scenes wouldn't have worked anymore. But why change it out of all recognition?

The substories that every episode had were often cheaply emotional and/or preachy. They also made the main story about circumnavigating the world drag badly. Fogg seemed to have all the time in the... world. The original excitement of time running out was very much lost.

Still, I couldn't hate it. The main actors were great, Tennant made this version of Fogg work. The chemistry between Abigail and Passepartout was not quite there, still I started to care about their story. The sets mostly worked, sometimes the background looked too obviously fake.